Services at St. Paul's are canceled due to COVID-19
Friday, March 13, 2020
To our beloved community at St. Paul’s,We are in the midst of a very difficult time. We trust that God knows our anxieties, fears and concerns and that God is always with us.
It is our highest priority to care for your well-being, physically and spiritually. In order to protect our congregation and because of our love for our neighbors, we will be suspending all church services and events until further notice. This decision was a difficult one, but we feel it is necessary to do our part to help safeguard the physical health and well-being of the communities in which we live, and especially the most vulnerable in our midst.
Our services for the next two Sundays, March 15th and March 22nd, will be canceled. Our campus will be closed temporarily as we wrestle with how best to serve our parishioners at this time. We will reassess the situation as appropriate. Please know that we do not make these decisions lightly, but rather we are praying for wisdom and guidance as we walk together through a period of uncertainty.
To our knowledge, no one in our congregation has tested positive for COVID-19. We are taking these precautions as a preventative measure to reduce the risk of spreading infection in our community.
Rev. Susan is ill with what we believe is a cold. She’s in the care of a doctor and is recovering at home. Please continue to hold her in your prayers.
Our parish has formed a core response team consisting of the clergy, our office administrator (Bonnie Rubrecht), and the wardens, Rose Hayden-Smith and Woody Bretz. We are meeting on a regular basis. We will be communicating via email and through Facebook ways to keep in touch and worship together, beginning with announcements and music this Sunday in place of our regular 10:15am service on our Facebook page. In the meantime, we encourage you to visit our website on a regular basis for more information about the COVID-19 virus, St. Paul’s response, and how to stay in touch with the church and with one another. We have also included online resources for faith, prayer and meditation during this challenging time.
If you are not currently receiving our parish e-newsletter, please email the office and request to be added to our mailing list.
Please, if you have questions about anything in this letter, if you are sick or in need of assistance, contact us at any time by emailing our office [email protected] or by leaving a message on our answering machine 805 643-5033. We will be monitoring our email and office voicemail frequently. It will be easier for our response team to have inquiries come into a single point of contact. We will call back as quickly as possible to assist you.
If you are in the hospital or ill, please let our office know. Hospitals are not permitted to inform us of a patient’s presence, but you or a family member can contact our church so that our clergy are aware of the situation.
We love all of you and are praying for the health and well-being of each person in our church family, and all those who are affected by this pandemic.
Yours in Christ,
The Rev. Susan Bek
Rose Hayden-Smith, Senior Warden
Bonnie Rubrecht, Parish Administrator