 Great of all things. Thank you. Thank you for moments of wisdom. Thank you for moments to connect with other pastoral leaders who are wrestling with very difficult questions in the midst of this health and racial pandemic. God asked you to allow our time to give us some keys and some steps forward. Give us some wisdom about how to move forward together. Give us some wisdom of how to be patient with ourselves and to constantly be open to where our world is collectively moving. These things we ask in your son's name. Wanted to begin with just some thoughts about my own philosophy and where we are moving as a conference. One of the last pieces of guidance you may have received is that our conference office, the physical spaces, would remain closed through the month of March. What I want to say is though the offices are physically closed, the work of the conference has not ended, similar to the work that each and every one of you are doing in your places of pastoral ministry. Though the buildings may have physically been closed, our churches and the heart of who we are in the Southern New England Conference has been very, very much so open. I am today in thinking about the accessibility of a vaccine that many of the people who are in our congregations have begun the process of accessing. Then I think about this reopening that I think continues to be a part of all of our wonderings, this question about what does that mean in life of the physical spaces that the conference is stirring. The invitation I have is that right now my newest guidance is that the conference offices will remain closed through annual meeting, which will be the second week in May. My thought around that is not only will the physical spaces remain closed, but I am not at a place of saying will reopen then, but at that point will be another marker in the life of the conference where we will revisit where are we in terms of even having that conversation. My invitation to you in the local church might be to follow that guidance from the conference perspective, that maybe after annual meeting to convene the conversation about where you are to take the temperature of what is happening in our region, in our states and in our world to then discern where we might be. In the meantime, we will continue to give update and guidance, but it is really not a place that we will open after annual meeting, but we will be in a place of having deeper conversation. I want to get to the health professionals, so I will offer three pieces of how I am thinking about my own guidance as conference minister. The first one is science. What is science telling us about our way forward so that we can be faithful to the guidance from the CDC and many things that you will hear about today. The second one is a lens of safety. Can we truly be in a place or even a posture of thinking about reopening from a safe with a lens of safety as our guidance? Not only the cost of what it would really cost us to create worship spaces that truly would be following all of the guidance from the CDC, but are we also thinking about the types of folks who would be a part of who we serve? My last one is a spiritual guidance from Scripture, which is that church, as we think about it, really should be the organism in this world that is posturing itself to those who are the most vulnerable. And because of many complications with accessibility to the vaccine, education about it, its access for the most vulnerable of our populations, still issues and concerns about accessibility, the ability for people to gain access to the vaccine irrespective of things like race and socioeconomic status and location, all of those things continue to be something that we're wrestling with nationally as well as locally. So those are three places that my heart leans towards. Where is science telling us? Are we practicing a spirit of safety? And are we being led by, I think, a spiritual ethos of being thoughtful about those who are most vulnerable? That's led me to say that conference offices will not be physically open, even the consideration of them being open until after annual meeting. So thank you for listening to my few words, but I want to ground us in the voices of our health professionals. And so I want to yield the space to our health and wellness team leaders. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Peggy Madison. And I wanted to start off with just a simple slide. The next slide, please. Do you have it, Peggy? Don't we have it running? Should. I don't know. The open one. Is anyone else seeing types of COVID-19 tests? I can talk while we find it and it comes up. Okay. There are many questions around testing as many as around vaccinations. So I wanted to put together a slide that would just give a simple layout as to how they are different, because there's three different types of tests that you hear about in the media and in the paper. In the chart, this chart, the two on the left, the green column is a diagnostic test. And the one in the reddish color is an antibody test. And it's done by taking a, either a prick of blood from your finger or actually a tube of blood if other blood's being drawn. Now both of the green tests, the diagnostic tests are available both in drive up testing facilities as well as at home kits that you can buy. If you want it free, you really have to go to one of the state testing sites or other sites that have been set up by the state so you can get it done free. The antigen tests, you can get it right away. The results, 13 to 15 to 30 minutes. The others can take a day or a week because it's sent out to a lab. That's true of whether it's a drive up testing site that you're going to or something you're doing in your own home. The least accurate is the antigen test because false negatives can occur more often than that. The better one that you hear most often about is the PCR test. And that one is highly accurate. Few false negatives, which it doesn't tell you don't have it when you do, so that that is the preferred one. But you can also buy that to do at home if you want. The problem is at home tests are very expensive, ranging from 25 to 75 and up depending on people who have bought them to resell on the internet. So be careful of what you buy, but they are available. Even the blood test, sometimes you need a second test just to have accurate results. But the blood tests tell you if you've had it in the past, the green tests tell you if you might have it now. So those are the big differences. The one thing I keep having to remind people of is that the date of the test is the date that tells you is reported. So if you have a test on Monday, you'll get the report back maybe Wednesday or Thursday. Tuesday you could actually contract the infection, but it wouldn't show up for another five days. So when people say, I'm tested, I'm fine. No, if you were tested this morning, and this afternoon you've gone out to lunch, you aren't considered fine. So I just have to remind people that it's testing as of the time of the test that you're getting results on, not after that test. And it's a simple concept, it's just people tend to forget it. So I'll turn it back to Debbie and she's going to start with the vaccination information. Okay, the slide's not advancing for some reason. Here we go. So in Connecticut, as of today, we're enrolling people who are 65 and older as eligible to get the vaccine. That doesn't mean it's been smooth sailing for the 75 plus category. There's still a lot of difficulties with the system getting registered and finding a site where vaccine is available. But that is increasing. Healthcare personnel, long-term care facility residents and medical first responders are still being vaccinated within that group. We're also finding that there is difficulty getting the second vaccine within the appropriate window if it's the Pfizer you're supposed to get the second dose three weeks after the first and the Moderna is four weeks. We're seeing six to eight weeks for a lot of folks, which is still okay. You're still going to get a good immune reaction from that, but we are finding that very difficult. So there are several systems where you can get registered for a vaccine and those are all listed on the Connecticut website, which is very helpful. This is the actual address. We do have a PDF that will be distributed to attendees and posted on the website that lists all of the resources and websites for registering for a vaccine and determining eligibility in each state. So don't worry about copying all of these things down. The main one for Connecticut is the second one here, the vaccination scheduling options. You put in your zip code and it tells you what's available near you. It doesn't mean there is vaccine available there, but it will tell you the sites. And even as of this week, Walgreens and CVS are getting some of the vaccine in our area. And I explored those websites this morning and you can actually see which clinic sites are near you and whether they have vaccine available at the moment or not. Some other smaller pharmacies are allowing people to register on their website and making a waiting list. And then when they have vaccine available, they're calling appropriate people to get those injections. You can call 211 in Connecticut or the vaccine appointment assistance line, which is 877-918-2224. That is also a lengthy process, although they've added people to man those lines 12 hours a day now every day. So it's getting a little easier. There's also a deaf and hard of hearing line 711 access to vaccine appointment scheduling. And we really need to remember that the variants of the coronavirus are showing up in our area. As of the 8th of February, there were I think it was 20 in Connecticut of the UK variant identified and nine in Massachusetts. And these are only the ones that are identified. So we have to be careful. We have to be vigilant and get vaccinated. We're still believing the vaccines will be effective against the variants in preventing severe illness. I think that I have covered what I wanted to there. So I will turn it over now to Kathleen. Okay. Okay, I'm unmuted. So this is probably if you live in Massachusetts, this is probably one of the outlines that you're you've seen around. It's one of the popular ways in which we're trying to display who is who's eligible and when will people be eligible. And right now we have all of people in phase one able to be able to get a vaccine and they include both the clinical and nonclinical staff that work in home health care. It also relates to both workers and residents in the nursing homes and assisted living centers. All first responders and those who reside in residential care and workers and shelters. In the phase two, we have those who we have phase two level one. And that refers to people who are 75 years old. And if you've heard any of the of heard Baker this last governor Baker this last week, he has now said that the person who was accompanying that individual who's 75, they also can receive or schedule an appointment. And that now is one of the listed categories. What he had in mind, and this comes out of what we know from the from the various centers, Council on Aging, they had suggested that we could get better compliance with this age group if they could have someone go with them. And if there was the added incentive that the person that they come that they come with could also get a vaccine. It also makes great sense. From the point of view that one 90 year old person who's in my congregation has a homemaker who takes him to his appointments. And so if that person who he's with all the time could also be safeguarded, it makes a lot of sense. And that's what they had in mind. Family members, people that work in terms of the home health care. Those are the individuals that they were hoping that would take advantage of this. This morning, first thing I had heard on one of the updates or alerts was that people again were taking advantage of this, taking advantage of calling older people to really with scams. And so this is one of the things I think we as health providers and as clergy need to be aware of and to be sure that we're communicating about the importance of making sure that our elders, our over 75 age group, have a way of getting to the vaccination center and that it is with somebody who they know or if it's going to be someone that may volunteer from the church that they had that had a quarry check that they know how to transport someone safely in their auto to to the site. So these are just small things, but they're things that when on the ground that I find myself dealing with this particular week. But back to the schedule. So those are the people who can come and on our resource sheet, I have listed a number of different numbers of different websites that you can check. I find many of the private hospitals, such as Leahy, such as MGH, Brigham, they're doing their contact with their population that they serve through invitation. And that allows them to manage their supply, to set up their deliveries in the most over a number of different sites, and it allows them to be able to connect with their clients and know and and automatically get in touch with those who need to be alerted that it's now time to get your shot, you're you're the next in line. The VA is also actively doing that. And each of the hospitals have a on their website, have a site and have have either a phone number or a way in which you can use the site to to register. And again, I think the mass.gov site is most helpful. And they now have their 211 phone number and that that you can call and that is both in English and Spanish. So that's a little bit of an update about who we have. We are waiting to hear that the 65 age group and those with two or more co co medical conditions might be available. They'll be the next group, but they're staying the course right now with with the two groups that they've identified. So on to our next Rhode Island, I think I need the Rhode Island slide. Is there somebody controlling the slide? Yeah, it's up. Okay, that's linked and there it is. Okay, as you can see, people are probably very confused because Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, we do cross boundaries a lot and people can share what's going on to their friends across boundaries and all three states are doing it differently. Rhode Island is not doing a phase 123. This is the chart for Rhode Island. It's based on age. And it also is based on geography included the city that has the worst number of cases per population is getting focused on for getting the vaccinations. So that is not based so much on age but where they live and then what that city it'll change over time. And the states also said as people move through things and as the vaccine continues to come, they won't finish one group before they start another group. If they're able to, they will start another group in a certain location. So we have state run vaccinations. We have pharmacies that are offering vaccinations and we also have the town setting up their own vaccination centers. So even within Rhode Island, things can get a little confusing. There on the resource sheet, I put the two different areas that you can go to either find more information about texting and where you can get tested, one more information about vaccinations and who can get them in what areas in what day. Every week, Rhode Island puts out a list of who's getting vaccinated that week. And that's available on the website. And then the following weekend, it puts out the list of who's getting vaccinated next week. So that it's really helpful but it's not anticipatory help so much as this is what's going on now. It was things change because we only get 16,000 doses a week. As things change, we'll let you know. But the website is really helpful to find out what's going on. And now I think it goes back to Debbie. Kathleen will be next. Sorry, Kathleen. All right. So we've come from a surge into staying a course that was set for us about physical distancing and about wearing masks. And we all have become, that's become part of our daily life. And we're now moving into what may be a more of a recovery phase. But there'll be a back and a forth for a while between these two because we are all learning. And there is a steep learning curve that we're experiencing. And we can trust the science. But in many cases, the science hasn't yet been able to, you know, vaccinations. We've only been doing it two months. So there's no long-term studies in terms of its impact in all of the cases. We don't know. So what we have to rely on is the staying in the course techniques that we have been using. So number one, we need to have patience. And know that things are developing as quickly as possible. I think as we look at that either in the vaccination rollout or in terms of what we know from the science, the understanding of this, people are really attempting to move forward and to really do their best. But we don't know everything. So we need our patience. We need to continue wearing the mask, physically distancing, avoiding the large groups, practicing good hand hygiene. And in this case, as there's a question about the variance increasing and there being more virulent, then I think there's that whole idea of wearing a double masking or making sure that you're wearing one of the better quality masks. Important in all of this is staying informed, but not being overloaded. And that is, I hope again by this point, you kind of have identified two or three resources that you know, this is where I can go to get the latest information. Again, in Massachusetts, mass.gov, the CDC, there's a few other resources that over time I've come to really appreciate. And so I hope that's true for you. And just to avoid all of the sensationalism that we get it's not helpful. It just really does deplete us. The realities COVID-19 is having some variance. So in the words of Dr. Fauci, it's, you know, the more we are not a resource, because we're we have some protection against the virus by getting a by being vaccinated, the less of a host that we will be to future variants. The vaccination distribution schedule is challenging, but each week you see the kinks getting worked out. That's where the patients comes in and the belief that people are really working to make these systems work. And then there's the vaccination that you know, the vaccinations now protect us from the severe illnesses, but we are not aware of all of the sciences yet to know about its spread. And if you're vaccinated, what will be the the spread? Because again, this is some of the research we're just beginning. And one of the groups that people come to are those in the church setting. And again, clergy are trusted people. And so it's important that you know the facts and you know some of the latest information and you know where to get it and to send people. For example, one of the things that we had recently learned since we had started to put this presentation together is an important medical alert that came out about if people we know that there will can be side effects, such as sore arms and some some fatigue and some flu like symptoms that some people not all people experience. And so some people have premedicated for with some pain relievers. And what we really want to encourage is people not to do that. The science isn't totally in but the recommendation based on on other experiences with other vaccinations has really indicated that this that this isn't helpful. Let's see. Okay. So let me just see if there's anything else. If you are on pain relief medications for ongoing conditions, that is something you need to talk with your doctor about. And that's a different situation. But it's more if you're taking it just prior to to a vaccination to anticipate. Oh, what if I receive this? Let me get it. Let me get a jump on it. Well, the problem is that that's an anti inflammatory substance. And it could interfere with with the body's reaction in a positive way to the vaccine. Okay, I think that's it. Now we're on to the decision making. Yeah, thank you, Kathleen. So when we're thinking about getting the vaccine, there's a lot of concerns, a lot of fear. Some people are afraid that the vaccine was created too quickly and might not be safe. They want to wait and let others get it first and see what's happening. And I really want to reinforce that while this these vaccines came out very quickly, some of the science that was used to develop them has been worked on over the last 10 years with other types of coronaviruses. So it's not entirely new technology or process. It's just finding the right vaccine for this particular virus. And then the vaccine, some fear the vaccine itself will make you sick and you cannot get the coronavirus from the vaccine. It is not a live virus. It is something that teaches our immune system how to recognize and fight the virus. It doesn't make you sick. And the side effects are really not medication side effects. They're your body's immune response to identifying this threat and building up resistance to it. So just like when we get the flu or we get a cold, you know, we feel a little stuffy, achy, we might get a low grade fever. These are symptoms that your body is working against that threat, and you're building up an immune response. So it's really a good thing. There are there's a lot of talk out there about how sometimes the second dose is worse in terms of immune response than the first, your body's just building up a stronger and stronger response. So give yourself a few days after your vaccination and you will feel better after that. We've heard some reports of people and feeling, well, others should get it first. I shouldn't, you know, health care providers who are younger, some would say, well, the older people should get it first. But the truth is that if we are following the criteria that have been developed by the CDC, the scientists and our local community decision makers, we all need to get vaccinated. And if we're in the group that is currently eligible, I encourage everyone to step up and get your vaccination. We protect ourselves and we protect others around us as well. And while it's been, it's not clear yet how much someone who is vaccinated, let me rephrase that, someone who has had the vaccine may still have the virus in their nasal passages and be able to spread it to others. So even once vaccinated, we need to continue to wear our masks and follow all of the guidelines until we reach that level of herd immunity, where most people are protected from getting the severe forms of the illness by the vaccine. So we protect ourselves and we protect others when we're vaccinated. If you've had COVID-19, you have built some immunity to the virus, but it is not yet known how long that lasts. It's also not known what level of immunity you may have in your own body because there are so many variables when we become ill with a virus. There are a lot of variables about how strong an immune response, how many antibodies we build up. So it is not as reliable as getting the vaccine. So you still need to get the vaccination. Most of us have gotten childhood vaccinations to protect against diseases like measles, mumps and polio. And this is another one and the annual flu shots. This is another vaccine that is just as important, if not more so right now for us all to get. Don't worry about whether you get the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine or the Johnson and Johnson vaccine when it gets its emergency authorization or another one that may get the emergency authorization. Whatever vaccine is available to you will provide protection and the levels of protection, while they may vary, do not vary that greatly. I heard a report recently that the annual flu vaccine has a 40 to 60 percent effectiveness and the vaccines we're hearing about now are going from 70 to 95 percent. So it's a good level of immune response. And as Kathleen mentioned, Dr. Anthony Fauci had said, if there's no viral replication, there can be no viral mutation. So the more we protect ourselves from becoming ill and protect others from becoming ill and circulating the virus, the more effectively we will be able to stop this spread. Also, as a side note, in terms of worrying about a severe reaction from the vaccine, as of January 21st, it's been reported that Pfizer only experienced 11 severe reactions and that's anaphylaxis, difficulty breathing, requiring an emergency room visit or emergency treatment, 11 out of every million vaccine doses given. And the Moderna has reported 10 severe reactions out of 4 million and none of them were fatal. So there's, you know, a lot of people have already received the vaccines in the testing phases and now in the early distribution phases. So we can be pretty comfortable that it's safe for us to take the vaccine. So now, along with all of this, it's a lot of stress, it's a lot of anxiety, it's a lot of uncertainty, and it's a lot of fatigue in wishing we can get back to the quote unquote normal. So we have Sarah Maria here who is a chaplain and she's going to talk with us a little bit about our mental health response. Good afternoon. Everybody, take a big deep breath. You've just taken in all kinds of information. I'm going to read a few documents to you. One is emergency stress relief. As far as I know, these are available up on the site. I will also just speak to being vaccinated because the hospital vaccinated me and the second vaccination just made me feel a little punky. It wasn't really that bad at all. Honestly, I felt just a little flu-ish in the afternoon of the second day and I went to bed and I was fine the third day. So one of the things we can do to be in these bodies and to remind ourselves to settle down and coming back to earth is to take a giant deep breath in your belly. One of the things I'm reading to you speaks to emergency stress relief and it says literally if you're having a moment where you're lost and you're anxious, just stop and breathe when you feel like you're about to pop. Don't solve the problem. Don't even think. Don't do anything. Just breathe. 90 seconds of slow, deliberate belly breathing will calm your nervous system and bring back your higher brain functions. And it helps to put your hand on your heart and focus your attention there because we're mammals. We respond to touch, especially on our heart, right? So focusing your attention and breathing. And when your brain re-engages, it'll need a partner. That's your heart if it's going to generate any useful ideas. But for now, everything else can wait. Honestly, just breathing in these bellies when you fill the belly like a balloon and expand on the inhale and then exhale, gently pull in belly to spine. It's because your vagus nerve runs along your abdomen here. Another way to be in these bodies is to honestly hug yourself. If you hug right under the lower part of your rib cage gently and hold yourself, it calms your body down. So these are great responses to your own body when you're finding a moment of, you know, of having anxiety or worry or what ifs. The next thing I'm reading is something that says how to ride the waves of change. I adapted it, but it's mindfulness practices, tips for going with the flow rather than losing ourselves in the undertow. So how to ride the waves of change. Change comes whether we want it or not. We can stay open and curious. You know, Reverend Goodwin was talking about how the church is open, our hearts are open, right? The buildings might be closed, but if we can walk through this world with open hearts, we can be curious to the ever-changing landscape of life's possibilities. Change leads to resilience. So the sea and change is choosing to stay open as you make a conscious choice to stay open, raw and vulnerable. We can be brave and tender and present to the technicolor experiences that reveals life's texture and richness. The age of change says have awareness of what is unfolding moment by moment. That's just present moment awareness. It's a key to mindfulness training and it's practice. All this stuff is practice, so it comes with patience also, right? Notice your thoughts. Which emotions are here? Just sitting with the emotion. What sensations? Knowing that it will change. Stop trying to resist what's coming your way. You can become a scientist of your own experience and have wonder at what comes next. The age of change is to adapt. It's crucial to a personal and species survival. Considering that adaptation is at the heart of survival, it's surprising how afraid we are of letting things evolve. If we learn to adapt, allowing new information and challenges to expand our perspective rather than retreating into ourselves, our unique brilliance can move along with life's flow. The end of change says notice how it feels to say stay close to your experience, so that's some of this allowing language that I like to use. At the end of the day, most of us just want to feel better. When we allow ourselves to be gently present, we may notice an increase in energy, joy, and resilience. Resilience is just bounce, right? As we dare to explore the vividness of this life, the G is generate wisdom by remaining curious about the ever-changing adventure. As we investigate our assumptions, our judgments, and other narrow ways of thinking, we open opportunities to develop insights that expand and recharge our views. A statistic is that we have 68,000 thoughts a day, and 98% of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday. That alone just makes me want to take a nap. So noticing that you're not your thoughts, right? Just being curious and noticing that there's always change. And then the E of change is to enjoy life's fresh offerings. It's important, important to be open to change, but it doesn't mean we should be constantly striving for change or forcing it on ourselves. Riding the waves of change means being here for what arises naturally, not moving at breakneck speed toward the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. Life can slip past us so easily and go unnoticed. Remember to pause, take a breath, and appreciate the electric circus called life. The last document I'm going to read to you from has a little bit of science in it. Ten ways to build stress resilience based on science. This is adapted from an article actually for teachers based on the teleomere effect. Ten ways to bolster your fortitude for getting back into the groove and meeting challenges throughout your year. The first thing to practice is wake up with joy. When you open your eyes in the morning, do not immediately reach for your phone. Don't anticipate your looming list of things to do with dread. Instead, practice thinking about the gift you've been given a chance to start fresh and seize a new day. Choose optimism and set your intention. What are you going to accomplish on this day? I actually just read something the other day that said to get up and look for the faces of the people you love. So going to find the people you live with if you're living with others, right? Take a tip from the 14th Dalai Lama who says, every day think as you wake up. Today I am fortunate to be alive. I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. The next thing to practice is to eat. You know, choosing whole grains, fruits and veggies, foods that are rich in antioxidants, they're very important for your energy level. It helps your body to stay healthy. Afternoon snacks are really healthy, especially all these zoom meetings we're sitting in all the time. So noticing your body and taking good care of that. Learning about Tai Chi. It talks about taking Tai Chi as a meditative practice. It also increases vitality. It helps your body to move, helps your mind to move into your body, right? It gives you energy and it also helps with balance as you get older. Think about your relationships. Who are the colleagues that can cultivate your personal power of positivity? Avoid negative toxic people. As we know, toxic people are always going to be toxic. People who have positive relationships and support us or groups that support us provide us with better health. Social media, being really careful with that. Does it make you feel socially isolated or are you in a group that you feel confident in? And again, breathing. Here we go with breath yet again, practicing mindfulness strategies, using meditation. There are two fabulous sites, Insight Timer and Headspace, both offer a host of meditation apps, practices. They're both apps that you can tune into. You know, you can pick them how much time you need, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatnot. They're really great sites. Another one I do actually is just on one hand, two hands, sorry, two hands. You can say to yourself, I am here now in this. So it's the six words. I'm here in this seat. I'm in this moment. I'm in this room. I'm in this next breath. Being aware of where you are. And that's the next part that talks about being aware. Just paying attention throughout your day. It's beneficial to retrain your cognitive mind and build new neural pathways as you respond and not react to stress in your day. One of the things I'm doing a lot with all this hand washing we have to do in my hands are so cold as I really enjoy the warm water of hand washing. So I bring my mindful awareness to washing my hands and feeling the warm water and notice the warm water. It's a fabulous mindfulness practice to put me back in my body in that moment. Exercise is essential. Planning for, this says 40 minutes at least three times a week, balancing the exercise that you need to help your body and practicing gratitude. Each day at the end of the day, think about five things that made you happy and write it in a journal. It is really remarkable how little effort it takes to cultivate a happier life and simpler routines. Gratitude provides so much stress resilience. And I put a link up here for a fabulous Ted Talk on gratitude that you can all watch. Create your own sleep ritual. Be sure you go to bed at the same time every single night, getting a full night's sleep if you can because it really helps with the stress resilience in our bodies. And the one thing I will not negotiate on a planet with other human beings is practicing self-compassion. Self-compassion is essential especially now. We often hand compassion out to every single other human being over ourselves, including our pets over ourselves. That is the hand to the heart practice. Loving yourself, being kind to yourself, treating yourself the exact same way you would treat your absolute best friend. Being kind and sending loving kindness to yourself and others really helps with the stress resilience in these bodies. So this is how we restore ourselves in these moments of panic and anxiety. What am I passing it off to? Back to Debbie. I'll say thank you. I really appreciate this team and we're going to have a fun little exercise with Reverend Lee Ireland in just a minute. But just so you're all aware, this is the health and wellness team. Kathleen is a parish nurse in Massachusetts and Peggy is a congregational minister for health in Rhode Island. And so we have all three states covered with faith community nurses and all of this information is really something that faith community nurses, lay health leaders, and clergy can share with everyone in our communities to try to help us all get through this really challenging time. So Lee, I'll give it to you. Okay, thank you. Well, it's good to be with you all. And there are things that I have heard and listened to that have been very helpful. Just to share in the state of Connecticut today, they opened the door for people 65 and older to sign up for the vaccine. And there is absolutely no way that I can access that page. I mean, the thing has come. It's as if the website has crashed because there have been so many people think about how many people are baby boomers in Connecticut, we are not even able to access it. So I will wait a day or two. And fortunately, we are at a point where we are, we've learned how to do the wearing of the masks and the cleaning of the hands and staying safe, fortunately. So one of the things when I was on the previous planning committee meeting, I talked about some of the things of hope. And I have been leading women's retreats on a monthly basis. And one of the last, at the last gathering, I offered an exercise to have the women bring a seed, you know, a package of seeds with the pot and some soil. And I invited them to consider what it was that they would like to plant within that pot. Even though it might have been, you know, marigold seed or whatever, what was it that they wanted to plant for their own spirits, so that this could be the symbolism that even though we're going through this time of the pandemic and we're in the midst of winter, we know that that seed is actually in the soil. And as long as we put some water to it and it has its own timing that is beyond our control, it's part of God's design, that it will germinate on its own schedule and some will germinate faster than others. But our call is that to be the patient one in the waiting, trusting that it will unfold as it plans. And as I was listening to what was being shared here, I have, I'm not quite so formal as far as the rest of you. But I have been, one of the other pieces I shared, I remember was the the gifts that are coming out of this time of the pandemic. I know that I work as a pastor in Groton, Connecticut right now. And the interesting thing is how to be present to people who are feeling the anxiety of, well, when is this going to come to an end? And when will we be able to come back into the worship again? And all of that, having been in so many settings, I have learned how to deal with the unknown. So I can stand with one another and say, how can you do your faith walk and listen to the words of scripture? Where, you know, all of the passages are trying to help us to say, all we have is today. What will you do today? And I had a dear colleague who would look at me at times when I was speaking when we were in clergy groups and he would look to me and he'd say, what's the next right step? You don't know whether that fantasy is going to happen or not. What's the next right step? Take that. And what's the next one after that? And we get so caught up in worrying about whether something's going to happen or not. Just like those seeds, we place them in the ground and we have that seed within us that if we cultivate it for patience and endurance and trust, we can walk through this time of the pandemic and see the blossoming of our love in a very different way if we don't buy into the fear. And that's become my mantra of choosing love and not fear. And one of the fruits that I am seeing is one I have really begun to appreciate Zoom more than other people, mainly because I'm not on it eight hours a day, but I have been able to do programming all over the world with people that just brings me great joy. But I also have learned that my 10 year old granddaughter, who is now 11, is learning how to do, create her own clothing and doing painting by watching YouTube and participating in activities that she would never been able to do if it had not been for the time of the pandemic. And so it's like, how do we stop looking for what we don't have and see the opportunities that are here that cultivate the joy and the hope. And I just happen to be one that gets to enjoy sunrises and sunsets, which are what brings it to me. But again, how do we be the agents in this world to say, I've planted the seed of hope, will you plant it within you? Will you plant the trust? Will you plant? And none of us knows how the pandemic will strike us, but I'm not going to give into the fear at this point. And I have no idea when I'm going to get my vaccines, but, you know, we're walking together through this. And the thing that we don't know most of all is we have no idea what God is at work doing in the midst of this. And that makes me smile. And that makes me laugh, because it's much larger than any of us can grasp at this moment. And so I think because I just preached on the transfiguration and the wonder of all of that before coming into this meeting, I'm filled with that story and the promise and all kinds of things as we go into Lent this next week. Peace. Thank you, Lee. We have a few minutes for some questions before we close with Reverend Goodwin. I did see a question about where clergy fit into these phases. And that is a little bit different in each state. However, clergy who serve as chaplains in a facility or within a healthcare institution were mostly invited to be vaccinated through that organization. I know in Massachusetts that one of the private healthcare organizations decided that they would vaccinate clergy, and you could contact them directly to make that appointment. Other than that, I would say check with your local authorities and really get that clarification. Read the guidelines on your website. There is a lot of variability in how strictly different sites are adhering to the eligibility criteria as well, particularly with individual hospital systems. So I would say look at your age, chronic conditions, where you work, where you practice, maintain all of the guidelines and check with your local authorities. And if you need any more information, you can contact me as well, and I'll look for it for you. Do we have other questions? You can put them in the chat or in the Q&A box, or I don't know. Drew, can you unmute folks? Yep, we do not have the Q&A enabled, so they can just put that in the chat. In the chat, okay. As I mentioned, we will put everything into an email for those who have registered, and we will also be posting it on the website. I'll send it out to the Health Ministry subscribers as well, and we'll be putting it on the Facebook page. There is a lot of information. I'm also working on writing up some reopening guidelines in respect to the current state of the pandemic for 2021. So that'll be coming shortly. Debbie, would you like to mention about the upcoming, the next month's chat? Oh, that makes sense. Where's my calendar? The 25th, I believe. Yes. Yeah. At one, the Health Ministry chats will be on Thursdays at one o'clock on the fourth Thursday of each month. We are planning to do some more webinars potentially, so watch your emails for dates about that. And if you have topics that you would be interested in learning more about coronavirus or health and wellness ministry or otherwise, please let me know. Also, we'll be doing a workshop during Super Saturday on Saturday the 20th, so you can look for that and join us for some more conversation along building resilience and health and wellness ministries. So I'm not seeing any more questions, and thank you, Jocelyn, for your leadership and joining us as well. And Reverend Goodwin, would you like to close us out? Yeah, again, I just want to say I'm so grateful that our conference has a health and wellness team. And so just again, our Minister for Health and Wellness, Debbie, I want to say thank you to you and to Kathleen and Sarah Maria and Lee and Peggy. Thank you so much for just your time and intentionality and what I think you've offered to us today. I would just again remind folks that what I've shared with us is that the conference offices will remain closed through our annual meeting in May. And part of the invitation is then to at that time do some spiritually deliberate practice and thinking about what next steps might be from that point. Again, we're being guided by science. We're thinking about the safety of all of those who are welcoming into our faithful places. And we're also thinking about where our spiritual guidance is to be thoughtful about those who are the most vulnerable amongst us. So join me in a closing prayer. Holy One, we acknowledge that this has been a rough road. We acknowledge that we are missing the intentionality and the connection of being with one another physically in person. But we also know that during this period, you are stretching us. You're stretching our understanding of what it means to be church together. So God, we ask you to let all the wisdom that was shared today become a part of the decision making of how we move forward. We ask you to give us strength and courage for what seems like more months that will come ahead. Give us grace and patience as we try to figure out this new world that we've been welcomed into in the midst of a health and racial pandemic. And God, we trust that though you it's been rough over the past few months, you've been with us every single step of the way. And we trust your spirit will continue to be with us. So as has been so beautifully said, though our buildings might not be open, we are grateful that the church is very much open and alive, doing your work in and upon this world. Amen. Thank you so much for your time, everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much, team. Thank you, Reverend Goodwin.