As we continue to refine our processes of receiving and welcoming you, our beloved parishioners, back into parish life and communal worship, I wanted to take a moment to not only extend my gratitude to our Parish leadership for their hard work, love and devotion, but to offer a few midweek notes and thoughts to you as well:
1. While our guidelines may seem burdensome or even unnecessary to some, they are in fact very reasonable,responsible and respective of others and are in sync with our greater Orthodox Christian community as well with regards on how to mitigate the risk for our faithful. Additionally, we presently follow the best practices as directed by the CDC for all Houses of Worship.
2. Nothing is to be signed by parishioners when coming to the church. We simply ask that you review the symptoms of COVID-19, sanitize your hands before entering and don’t enter the church if you or your family member has a fever. Similar measures are in place for those of us who are serving out in the world as part of the COVID-19 Joint Task Force to ensure the wellbeing of our families and co-workers, so I would expect nothing less from our churchesas well!
3. The ChurchCenter application is a convenient and practical tool for us to use so that parishioners may sign-up for services online and in advance. It is not used for tracking attendance. It’s also a way by which many of us can continue to actively support the ministries of our parish.
4. As we come back together to worship together in person, we will continue to broadcast services when they are prayed; so that more of our faithful will be able to virtually attend. Shortly after the service is prayed, the video is deleted, it is not archived.
5. If you are unable or uncomfortable coming to worship (there are now multiple opportunities throughout the week), please coordinate with Fr. Seraphim to set a time to pray at your home or at the parish.
I would also like to add, that in times of crisis, there are always those individuals who will attempt to exploit individuals by attempting to gather their personal information. Please DO NOT provide any financial information, or any social security numbers or any personal information to anyone who is calling or texting or emailing you saying that they are part of “Contract Tracing” group or organization. THIS IS A SCAM. No personal information is ever gathered by a reputable organization, or by the State or by the Federal Government in this manner.