 Greetings, beloved. I'm Reverend Dr. Audrey Price, the executive minister for strategic operations in the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ. Let's face it, most of us simply want to forget 2020 ever happened. But like any event that comes with challenge and struggle and death pertaining to the church, there can be resurrected moments. There can be a resurrection. And when there is, it's important to record what happened and how the church responded. So I ask, how did we, the 600 plus congregations in the Southern New England Conference, respond during this time of pandemic? On March 13, 2020, America entered a national emergency due to the 2019 outbreak of the coronavirus. And coupled with that, the nation continued to suffer under the pandemic of racial and systemic injustice. So since March 13, this nation has been under the brutal hand of two deadly pandemics, COVID-19 and systemic racial injustice. Consequently, the universal church was thrust abruptly into answering and engaging this question, how to be the church during a pandemic time of social unrest. How did your church respond and continue to be the church in innovative, creative and unimaginable and unfamiliar ways? Why am I asking? Because, beloved, future generations will look back to 2020 and 2021 and wonder and study how did your church journey through these times and in not only survive the pandemic, but thrive. Yes, it's important to capture and chronicle your church's witness. The Southern New England Conference witness. In capturing this witness, we explore how the church interpreted and responded to the still speaking voice of God in this generation. In doing so, future generations will reflect upon this historic period and see how the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ made the faith its own in this generation. Just as churches look back at how we survived during the historical periods of the Revolutionary War or the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement to inform their decision making on how they would be church in this time of two deadly pandemics. So will future generations look back on these years as they encounter challenges and struggles in decades in a millennial to come. I feel so passionate about chronicling our witness that I apply for and received and delivered to the Southern New England Conference a grant from the Louisville Institute. The grant will fund us building a time capsule. This time capsule would be a presentation that creatively captures your story that will tell the story of how we survived and thrived. The time capsule would be a collective work product consisting of multimedia presentation submitted from your churches. A written chronicle as you narrate your story to us in a museum of artifacts. For example, I recently preached at a church in the Southern New England Conference during the Lent season and the pastor mentioned how she created Lent packets and sent them to each member of the congregation. Once they got their Lent unit, they could unwrap it and set up their own private altar in their homes. That's something that I want us to capture and collect in this time capsule. So I invite you to share your story with us. I want to ask and hear your answers to questions like how did your church respond during these two pandemics? How did you respond in gathering in different and innovative and creative ways for worship? How did you stay connected as a community of faith? How did your community of faith grow and change? How did you connect to your surrounding community or communities even outside the Southern New England Conference? How did these two pandemics impact your spiritual faith formation programs, youth groups, your mission work? This story is your story. Not only will you become part of the bigger collective, but this can become the initial spark for your church to create chronicle its unique story. Not only chronicle your unique story, but our collective Southern New England story. So that we can inform and be a witness for the wider setting, the Greater Church of the United Church of Christ. And even for our ecumenical partners, even for our interfaith partners, even for those who might not be attached to the community of faith, but also survived these two pandemics. I hope you're interested in being a part of this project. You will be hearing from two of my fine teams in the Southern New England Conference staff. The Center for Church Leadership and Innovation, led by Bridget Johnson. And our communications team, specifically our digital minister, Reverend Eric Ellie. One of them would be in contact with your church to engage you and to hear your story. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me at timecapsul at sneucc.org. Yes, contact me at the email displayed below. I look forward to hearing your stories. Crawling our witness and displaying to the world how the churches of the Southern New England Conference not only survived two pandemics, but thrived.