 Well, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Thursday conversation with the bridge conference ministers I'm here with my colleagues to talk about phasing forward how as we think about The the process by which our churches will come back together in physical spaces What that will look like and we're gonna have some conversation among ourselves we're gonna encourage you to also join in on the conversation asking questions in the chat box either if you are joining us by Zoom in the chat box there or if you're on Facebook live will also be monitoring that platform for any questions or comments that you might have So thank you all for joining us We're gonna start with a three three parts of scripture that sort of ground and shape and form Are thinking about phasing forward as the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ The first scripture is all of these should be well known to most of us I would guess the first is from the gospel of Matthew chapter 25 verse 44 Then they also will answer Lord when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and Did not take care of you Then he will answer them Truly, I tell you Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these you did not do it to me The prophet Jeremiah and the 29th chapter verse 7 says this But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and Pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare, you will find your welfare and Finally from the book of Acts Part of the Pentecost story in the second chapter of Acts verse 46 Day by day as they spent much time together in the temple they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts so those three scriptures have helped form our Ideas thoughts and recommendations for the Southern New England conference and you'll hear more about that in a minute But I'd like to pray a prayer that is from Barbara Glasson the president of the Methodist conference And it's a prayer for the Christian community. So let us pray We are not people of fear We are people of courage We are not people who protect our own safety We are people who protect our neighbors safety We are not people of greed We are people of generosity We are your people God giving and loving wherever we are Whatever it costs For as long as it takes Wherever you call us Amen So I'd like to turn our conversation over to my colleague Marilyn Marilyn Good afternoon. I have some announcements for the good of the order this afternoon As you know, we have canceled the June annual meeting But we do need to meet as a conference. So we have scheduled a tentative date for the next gathering for September 26th, so save the date our annual meeting planning team is making plans for a virtual meeting that day our RIP medical debt Deadline is fast approaching. It's this coming Monday May the 18th We've well over 125,000 dollars so far and that will allow us to retire millions of dollars in Crushing medical debt that can bring a family to bankruptcy. So if your church hasn't contributed Please do so in the next few days All of the money that is raised will go to that effort The council of conference ministers of the United Church of Christ including we three bridge conference ministers have collaborated to create an entire Sunday worship it uses the revised common Selectionary reading for this coming Sunday May 17th, but you can use it for any other Sunday later on if you like The project team is currently working to enable closed captioning And they hope to have it ready by Sunday So if you've already downloaded the worship service and wish to have closed captions be sure to get the latest version and Then my colleague Ken Salati We'll be hosting a webinar tomorrow at 2 o'clock entitled Digital ministry what we've learned and what's next it will be tomorrow at 2 p.m We have some worship leaders from around the conference to discuss what they've learned so far about doing digital ministry and Where we they believe we are headed the panel will include Jonathan Chapman and a flowers Isaac Lawson Jen Macy Ashley Popperson and Alex Shea will so this is not to be missed You can find a link in the five things to know email or in the events Tablet tab on our website As any UCC org You can also catch it at 2 p.m. Tomorrow on the conference's Facebook page And I think that's all I have for today, so I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Don The afternoon I'm going to recap one of the scriptures and share with you the introduction From a document that has been developed by the people I'm about to introduce along with the help of a variety of people on our staff That scripture comes from Jeremiah 29 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and prayed to the Lord on its behalf For in its welfare you will find your welfare This is the introduction This is the time unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes This is a challenging time for all of us We've had moments of creative ingenuity and moments of overwhelming exhaustion We entered it in chaos. We plan to move through it with intention We are not reopening because we never closed We have engaged ministry in new ways and we will move forward in new ways First there is no way to ensure the overall safety of our congregations and communities until there is a trusted vaccine. We know this Second we know that in-person worship in sanctuaries is one of the types of gatherings that is most likely to spread the viral infection In an enclosed room over a length of time the airborne viral particles can reach every corner and six foot or 12 foot physical distancing will not prevent this Speaking and praying and singing aloud, which is so much a part of our worship propels the virus even further than just breathing Using masks limits, but does not prevent the transmission of the disease And in our worship spaces in our churches common surfaces abound with the opportunity for lots of contact And we know that people can be carriers of the virus without showing any symptoms Third, we don't know everything about the virus and its impact on all ages. New information is coming out literally daily That makes it hard to predict trends and safety measures and even the phases we're presenting Fourth, our congregations in many cases are comprised of the populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 And fifth, an outbreak in one of our churches will have an impact upon all of our communities and upon the capacity of our healthcare systems So we've been reviewing dozens of documents and websites on next steps for places of worship The document you're about to see and will soon be on the website is an integration and distillation of those resources tailored for our churches We are presenting it in a phasing forward approach beginning with our current base phase the phase we're in right now And moving through four phases that are tied to local conditions in the guidance of local government and healthcare professionals So let me share with you three points that come from this. There is no one date that can be universally applied across our conference to every church in every community Things differ, local regulations, building size and condition, the age of the congregation, the size of the congregation, the healthcare capacity in the community, the rate and incidence of the spread in that community, those are all changing from town to town Second, the way forward we know is not going to be linear. There is a possibility of new spikes of infection that may return us back into the base phase or the stay home, stay safe requirements So based on all of this based on these phases, these metrics and these guidance and the current trends that we are seeing at this point We believe that in person worship and buildings will need to be suspended most likely through the at least the end of the summer So I want to share with you the three folks have been working most diligently on this particular document. Kate Ostertag, Tamara Moorland and Kelly Gallagher they've all are a part of our staff and they have been collecting the insight and wisdom from across our staff and across our country. I'm going to turn it over to Kelly Good afternoon everyone. It's great to be here. I wish I could see all your faces. I'm Kelly Gallagher associate conference minister for the Central Massachusetts and Franklin associations. I'm grateful to be with everyone. I'm just want to say I'm here to say that we began a couple weeks ago Looking at this idea of what are our next steps we put out a list checklist for the mid pandemic filled with questions inviting all of you to start asking as we consider moving forward The more that Tamara and Kate and I read documents coming out of states and the CDC, we moved into the understanding of phases, which we are going to present to you and which Don just talked about. We are not experts on this. We are, we are here to work and serve and gather and hear and talk and share with all of you. We welcome continued resources and conversation, your questions, your concerns. What we'll present today is an outline. There will be more resources on the website, but we are showing you a snapshot of what we are recommending for our face forward recommendations. We took into consideration the vast array of churches that we have the reality of three states and many counties and many many local considerations. And so we're offering general recommendations and we hope that it will be useful for many. And again, we welcome your resources that you have to share with us as we go forward. And so I will turn it over to Kate Ostertag who has put together this amazing document. So thank you. Good afternoon everybody. I'm just going to walk you through the basic outline of the document, beginning with the base phase I believe that Tiffany is going to get that up on your screen so that you can see it. The base phase is where we are right now. We're in a either a stay at home order or non essential business recommendations are in place. And it's really clear that the case count the COVID-19 case count is not decreasing and not decreasing over the two week continuous span that it would need to an order to move into one of the actual phases where we could begin in person worship. We have some recommendations that are specific to base phase that include online worship only online meetings only, and then spending this time to make the preparations for phasing forward. Those preparations include continuing to use the resources like the resources that we have on the website already the mid pandemic checklist that was mentioned. Continuing to review the CDC guidelines and including those that are the interim guidelines for communities of faith. Continue to monitor your church is why they're closed to see that there aren't any risks that should be attended to. You'll want to consider and plan what the requirements you have for worship leaders that will participate in in person worship during the pandemic. You'll need a plan to develop. You'll need to develop a plan for that in person worship, and it will be considered a considerable task load you want to appoint an administrator or maybe develop a task team. There'll be a protocol that needs to be followed that will need to be implemented and you'll need that task team to put that forth. You'll need policies for health and health screening. And what will you do in the event of a case inside your community. You'll need to be an initial deep cleaning and then they'll need to be ongoing sanitation plans. And of course you'll want to share and develop a communication system to share with your worship. With your worshipers every all those measures that you're planning taking and as they are adjusted. As we look at moving into phase one and you'll notice the phases are very similar. What defines moving forward in phase is a longer period of time where you've been successful at worshipping in person and able to maintain those case counts staying down or trending down for longer and longer periods of time. So in our phase one. First and foremost you've done all the work that is needs to be done through the recommendations in the base phase, and you have confirmed that your state and local governments have lifted those stay at home orders, or essential business recommendations. So with that, check with your local health agent, make sure that you meet the criteria that your case counts have been declining for continuous two weeks that there's widespread available testing and that personal protective equipment is available but there's not any shortages in place. So let's start out in a small numbers to 10 to 25 people and that includes your lay and clergy leadership. And that should probably be prepared that should definitely be paired with online worship it's probably not going to include your whole congregation and there'll be people who have risk factors and won't be able to join in. You'll want to follow all the in person in person guidelines and recommendations those will be available online and they do include no singing and no communion. You'll want to schedule it far enough out once it appears that you're able to move forward that you'll be able to do a dress rehearsal. Nothing will be familiar to the people arriving and people's roles will have changed. Continue holding online worship and encourage those that are at high risk to continue to worship online. Look at holding services outside and when well ventilated areas consider some of the ideas that have come up for a drive in style worship. Be safely organized and always contact your local police and fire departments to check for any local requirements that might be in place. This is a really important piece. The phases as we move into them. We can only move forward or stay in a phase so long as all of the criteria for being in that phase remain true. So if case counts begin to rise or someone in your community tests positive. Then it's recommended that you move back to the base phase, always keeping in mind to post and follow the guidelines for hygiene, social distancing and continue with only online meetings and church offices would remain closed during this period of time. The remaining phases will the remaining to the next two phases phase two and phase three are essentially the same, although we move forward. It means that we've developed confidence in meeting in person. We're able to do so safely. Our state and local community is in a downward continuous trend in our community or worshiping community as a downward trend so mostly what happens is the numbers increase during these periods of phase two and phase three. And when we get to phase four, it means that there is a vaccine that it is that we have widespread inoculation that has been successful. And only then, when there's widespread immune immunity would we be able to return to in person worship. And again a reminder that at any point in time if we have a reversal of that positive trend we have to move back to the base phase. So I'm going to turn this over to Tamara Morland and she's going to help with our wrapping up. Hi, I'm Tamara Morland. And it was a delight to work on this project with Kate and Kelly. Kelly said initially this is a snapshot of all of the material that we reviewed for this presentation. But I want you to know that we will also be available in the days and weeks ahead to answer questions from you to gather information from you, and to continue compiling the best information we can for the churches in the southern New England province. And in addition to being available to you, we hope that you will share this information. Once it's posted on our website, which I believe will happen probably tomorrow, that you share this information with your various clergy groups, lay leadership groups with moderators with communities of practice and with and within meetings that you have so that everyone has a chance to look at this material and see how it can be utilized in your unique church in your community and whatever situations that you may have. In addition to this snapshot, there's a lot more that we have and we couldn't go over all of that today was really too much. The detailed information will be on the website. There's a detailed version of this phase forward. There's also a list of recommendations for in person worship that are much more detailed than what we discussed today and I think that will be very helpful for you to talk about the real detailed elements that you need to think about in your churches. There's also a template for worship. Again, we're not mandating that you do this but we thought it would be helpful to have a template that you can utilize in your own churches as you're thinking about how might we do worship, you know how might what might we do around people sitting and social distancing and how would we do that if we had coffee hour how would we do these various things so there is that template as well. The other thing that we wanted to mention is that our material may be slightly different than others. I think right now people are a little overwhelmed that everybody's putting out a directive for in person gathering. And so we were very careful to select things and to put together something that reflects our culture. That reflects the theology that is pervasive in the United Church of Christ and that complements our culture. So if you hear that other churches are doing different things. We want you to know that that's why we selected these things to present to you and it may be different than you know our neighbors. They have a different theology in some churches and some churches are going to be going back before we do. There's you know and Kent might speak to that we had a conversation earlier today that some people are really inviting at the bit to be in their churches as soon as possible but we've decided to follow these guidelines so that we can be safe and that we can protect those that God has given us not charge over but that God has placed in our sphere of influence and for us to minister to them so I think that's it if you want to if you have any questions. I think Kent will share those questions with us and we'd be happy to answer them for you. So lots of kudos for all of this work that the three of you have been doing and have put into this form of deep appreciation for many people online. One of the questions that's being asked is who makes decisions about what the widespread availability of testing is anybody want to answer that one. I was actually going to ask Don it feels more like a CDC or because a CDC question or how towns are doing with tracking. So Don, can you speak to that one thing I'll speak to is with questions like these. I'm going to keep encouraging you to check with your local health officials. They had the best sense of what the requirements are and how those requirements are best met within your particular region, because the metrics themselves may change from place to place they're the ones who will have the best insight into. Do we have sufficient testing capacity that we feel within our community it's safe to move into a new phase consult with them. If you don't have a local health agent check with your emergency management person in the community, your local police and the fire should know who they are, your local town officials should know the health agent, and you all should know them as well. Get to know them well. So another question is I'm curious about why worship is the first in person activity that you recommend rather than beginning with pastoral care, small group meetings or other in person activities, subject to appropriate things, etc, and holding off on worship until a later phase. So that's one question about why worship against those other things. And then I'm also interested in any guidance you may have on funerals weddings 12 step groups pre schools and other space use. So let's take one at a time one is why is worship the first in person activity that we've mentioned rather than some of the other small pastoral care, small group meetings other in person activities. Anybody want to answer that. Take a shot at that. Kelly and I are on the same rhythm here. I think primarily what we've heard from people is that we really want to get back to worship that people have been very creative and small groups and it's a lot easier to do small groups, virtually. And so the pressure or the, the comments from people in our community has really been I miss being in worship. So our focus was about gathering together in worship. But clearly I think when you look through the documents, it really pertains to all kinds of gatherings, whether it's a funeral, whether it's your meetings and so forth, but our focus initially was on worship. Kelly, you want to add something to that. I guess just that I would say that the question of pastoral care, and any other kind of gathering those criteria would still exist as they would going to the grocery store I mean the the six feet and the, the mask and the gloves and those are the things that pastors will have to be deciding for themselves. You may choose if you can only gather 10 people. Instead of gathering those 10 people for worship, you may see what we're going to have study groups all summer to discuss how this has impacted us in our vision. And yet we would still recommend all the things we recommend for, for consideration if you're going to bring 10 people together at all and they're the six feet, the, you will see all the recommendations there are so whether you're gathered 10 people for worship 10 people for Bible study, five people to vision, all the things that we've put in place or recommended we would recommend the same. So the second part of that question is around offering guidance for funerals weddings, but then that sort of goes into another territory which is user groups of our congregations buildings that 12 step groups preschools other space use any thoughts about that. Kate, that the question of the use of the building doesn't come in until I think the end of phase two or three Kate, I think it's phase two, where we recommend the consideration of opening the building to others. We recommended it in the in what is now the end of phase two to consider it and to consider implementing it in phase three. And the conservative logic there is that the sanitation practices that would be required for worship if you proceeded with worship when amplified by other building use become quite quite complex and very quickly multiple entering and exiting from the building. I think if church perhaps was not going to worship in person that they might have greater flexibility for building use. But if the space is shared, and there would be worship or maybe multiple even scheduled times of worship, then to also have rental groups or maintain offices at the same time. And that looks pretty, pretty extensive to manage. So it's not that it's not a conversation that you couldn't try to have earlier, but there is a great complexity so that was the reason for delaying that some hoping to also hear about children and youth at each phase and when can staff work from church buildings. You may want to speak about children and youth at the phases. Go ahead Tamara Kelly, or you have to unmute. So our faith formation folks have worked really hard on phasing forward documents around youth and Sunday schools and things like that and that will be a resource attached to to our document and on their pages. And so that would be another Thursday conversation they've worked really hard and so that's what I can say. Go ahead I'm sorry Kelly. Was there another part of that question. It's about when staff can work from church buildings. And I think again, when church buildings are open is listed, I think the end of phase two as well. Are there plans to help congregations obtain personal protective equipment, specifically hand sanitizer in bulk. I think that we've discussed that as a possibility but I do think how we might talk about what resources congregations might need and how to how to get a hold of resources like PPE. I do think we'll probably want to include that in some of our research so we will we will try to attend to that. Do you have advice for churches that host other congregations of different traditions within their building. To what extent are we to make the decision about how they return to worship in the building. That's a really good question. Because other churches may want to start earlier. There are some places I think where there are meetings that are being held now but the church office itself is closed. And so I think that that requires a sensitive conversation. With the leaders in the church and those folks that are renting the space, because they are renting your space or utilizing your space. And so I think you share you know what your guidelines are what your practices are and ask that they can adhere to those as best as possible. So, the actual SNEC location where I can direct my church members for this Sunday's worship service. I think that's referring to the Council conference ministers worship service and we will we will run that on our page on Sunday mornings but there also is a link in on the on the Facebook page and is that on the website Tiffany. Yes, also on the website. One of the good questions and responses the challenge that we have discussed related to a limited small number and worship is how we would politely and with an open heart tell people that they can't come. So any suggestions how to manage that that's not what said exactly here but I think that is the question. And that the very people who should not come for because they're in the risk factors, my age group and older will be the people who will want to come they'll be the ones who have been isolated. How do you how would we think that one through that's also in our recommendation document. But you know it might be working with your leaders to determine that you might start that small group with that population and that they have a Sunday, you know then another Sunday might be for you know children and families. So, I think that's a decision for the congregation, you know what your needs are. And if that's a population that you really have identified as a population that has been vulnerable and isolated, it might be that that's the population that you start and remember that we're talking about doing this in conjunction with virtual so that there's still opportunities for various groups to worship. So, you know, while you may have that elderly group or that group that is more at risk in the building, you're still broadcasting your service virtually so that others are still able to participate in worship at the same time just not at the same location. And I just wanted to add to that that I know because this is such a difficult question, it is, I have heard the decision why some churches are choosing to just hold off on worship so those decisions and that division doesn't happen. And so that's another option to say we're all in this until we're all in this so there's a question about resources available to approach stewardship during a longer distance worship period. We do have a group of people working. There's a small group of people that have been working on stewardship issues stewardship chairs are meeting. David Cleaver Bartholomew from our staff and Mary Nelson from our staff are gathering people to share best practices around stewardship. We had an initial finance finance zoom meeting a couple weeks ago we're doing another one of those next week to sort of attend to the stewardship and financial questions so we will attempt to address that. What is the use of outdoor property for food and clothing collection and distribution. We do know that's going on. So again the question of how those who are serving others are practicing physical distancing are wearing masks gloves, making sure that they're observing all those guidelines I think using outdoor space for that. The churches are beginning to talk about with the weather getting nicer, maybe with the weather getting nicer they might want to gather for outdoor worship any thoughts about outdoor worship from the team. We had discussed. Some outdoor worship and some of the same processes that to evaluate ability to worship in person would come into play in planning any outdoor worship, still maintaining physical distancing still having masks still following the basic regulations would be important. In addition to that it would be very important to check with your local officials your police fire to find out if there are any practices that you need to follow or if you need a permit there may be guidelines that you need to consider when when planning facilities, things of that nature. The list is probably almost as long as within person worship for the things that you would likely need to consider to plan on, and to process in order to do that safely. I would also say when it came to the thrift store and food practices that some of that has had come our way and I think that what the recommendation of the team was if I'm not mistaken Kelly was that the groups that do a lot of thrift store work like the Salvation Army and Goodwill and so forth are making some recommendations for how to safely handle thrift and and those are resources that we need to continue to develop and have available. And I would say when it comes to food service outside or inside that you would also really want to lean on your local health agent to determine if you can take whatever guidelines you had or or permissions you had before and apply them to a new situation and during So there is a question someone's requesting Tiffany to flip phase three on the screen again for a moment I think that the person has a specific question about phase three is that something you can pull up quickly well. There we go. Now that it's on the screen I'll ask the person Vicki. What question do you have about that. And while we're waiting for that question maybe to emerge on Facebook live. I think the young man says the Windsor food bank is not accepting food donation gift cards and money only. And as always, I think she makes a great suggestion that we would also concur with it's best to check with your local folks to see what they do before you start a drive obviously you want you want that to be a part of that. And then we see Miller Ola pod says that most organizations are not accepting clothing right now so again this is all before you start something within your congregation out of good will and wanting to do something quote unquote. It's always good to check with local, you know, whatever agencies you'd be working within your own communities to see what they they're looking for and what they what they desire. The check that's needed for live streaming worship is different than what's required for home based services like many of us are doing could you address that. Paul Brian Smith asked and we will address that Paul tomorrow in the digital ministry meeting that's sort of the teaser to get you to come back tomorrow at two o'clock for our conversation we realize that probably for a period of time if not. This will be the way forward will be doing hybrid services live and online services at the either simulcast at the same time, we're having some kind of feature about that. There's a question about the Newman Congregational Church I know Timothy Silva is watching on Facebook and you saw the story that they had made a decision about until a vaccine is developed. And in use they will not be gathering in person, they'll continue to gather online. We may bring Timothy for one of these programs so he can tell you more about that. And so, and how they went into that decision it's both in on our website but also the National Church the United Church of Christ web page also has an article about that so we'll think about bringing Timothy on for his wisdom. And I'm going to create something on that to the first point we make in the introduction is that there is no way to ensure the overall safety of the congregation until there is a vaccine. So, beyond that everything in these phases is based upon the risk, your church is willing to take to its members and to the community and the overall health care system. And this can just be a conversation you can have within frameworks for providing, but the reality that Newman names is that there is no way to ensure safety until a tested and proven vaccine is available. That also raises a question that I've come a couple places in the side. What about if the church as a whole or leadership wants to open but certain individuals and leadership, or staff members feel that by opening they themselves are at deeper risk. And would they possibly threatened and losing their job, or have to make a difficult decision because they do not feel as though this, the safety of themselves, or their family allows them to be present in worship leadership, you have any comments on that. Do we have comments on that. I felt like you just commented. Um, but I, you know, I think that what Don said is, it is right that it, given our polity, given the reality of our churches and the reality of where we are and some churches are rural. Some counties haven't had any cases some that to say, don't worship until there's a vaccine feels like setting ourselves up. To be considered to some as not not seeing the broad picture but I do think that the reality is as Don said that there is no we cannot ensure the safety until there's a vaccine that we know has established widespread immunity. So, but we're we're the United Church of Christ and we're in conversation. I also would hope that you know that in keeping with the scriptures that we began with that the gospel calls us to be attentive to the least of these in our midst. I would certainly hope that no clergy person nor lay leadership person would feel as though they they are being called to place their own personal safety the safety of those they care about up against the decision of the church to try to move forward when they don't feel they're able to. I'm hoping that does not put something in a position of having to leave the church will leave a job. That I don't think would be in keeping with the gospel and I would hope the congregation would be able to have a good conversation around that that that holds our sense of love and compassion and care for each other in the teachings of Jesus in that conversation. And of course the conference stands ready to help you those conversations if needed. So, we want to thank our folks from our staff who've been working long hours putting this document together working collaboratively using a variety of resources including the best of what other churches other denominations and help using CDC guidelines. Using all the resources and trying to assemble it into what we hope will be a helpful resource for for local churches as guide guidelines. I think Don has some closing words and then I will close us out with prayer. Just reiterate some of the opening words in the Congress from our conversation that we know there is no one date that can work universally any longer, particularly because there is such a variety of geography and a variety within our churches. We're not advocating for a date we're advocating for careful consideration in the process and looking at metrics locally as well as as nationally. And that based on all of this, our view of the phases we're looking at the trends we're looking at the information this document. We continue to believe that in person worship in buildings will need to be suspended through at least the end of the summer, as we continue to see how this unfolds around us. And I'll pass it back to you. Thank you once again thank you to Tamara Kelly and Kate for their good good work on this particular thing of phasing forward as the Southern New England conference want to give a shout out to next week's program next Thursday at 130. We have the Reverend Mary Ludy on as our guest. Some of you who've been following Mary's adventures from Spain during the pandemic will be interested in hearing what Mary who's a very captivating lively speaker will have to say about the pandemic and faith. We'll join us. That's a week from today for that and tomorrow again to a clock. We'll have a conversation on digital ministry about what we're learning in in the way in which some of us have become instant experts quote unquote on digital ministry and what we think the future of digital ministry might look for our denomination and for the way forward. So with that, I wish you God's peace, God's blessing, God's compassion. Stay safe. Be well. God be with all of you. Amen.