A Message from Reverend Jane
Leaving the house never felt so good! Thank you to all who expressed concern about my well being over the last two weeks. My experience with COVID was like many fully vaccinated persons in this wave, it was mild, but still no fun. I am now back in the office and have tested negative. This weekend should be as expected with a funeral and two baptisms, during which I will mask. Looking back two weeks to the clergy conference,I wish I had been more careful, but enthusiasm got the best of me. I was with people I like and people I wanted to get to know, and we were all supposed to be fully vaccinated: so I was hugging and hand-shaking and even singing without a mask.
As some of you know I am an alternate deputy for the General Convention, scheduled a year late for this July in Baltimore. Typically this is one of the largest parliamentary gatherings in the world, with thousands of persons for over ten days. When I was a mentor for the Official Youth Presence in 2012 we had three or four of our young people get sick from the classic things that one could get, and one even went home. The experience of infections at a recent meeting, as well as spreader experiences like our clergy conference, have pushed home the reality that we cannot meet as we have before. They are going to drastically reduce the time gathered and require daily testing and masking and more, but still think a 10% infection rate is the best they can hope for.
Health experts believe we are at the start of another wave of infections, but one that is cloaked by home testing and mild symptoms for the majority of the fully vaccinated population. Listening this week to the public health expert contracted by The Episcopal Church has reminded me of two critical factors for our ongoing well being at CCRP. The first line of defense is full vaccination, there is no debate about this from reliable health experts, so please, if you have not, please do so. The next three are ventilation and masking and limiting of time in the same space when those are not fully implemented. One of the things that I learned this week is that this wave is showing itself to be spread easily by the fully vaccinated when no precautions are taken (masking and ventilation in particular). How terrible it feels to know that I potentially put others at risk when I was out and about in Cape May. This experience, and what we have been learning from experts, has me rethinking some of my relaxations I had been making in my personal life, and is going to change some of my planning for the summer. To learn more I direct you again to reliable sources such as Dear Pandemic since I am not a scientist or health expert.
We at CCRP are not going to make any changes to our current procedures at the moment, because you have shown for two years how respectful you are of public health. Yet I will also reiterate that we should all act as servants of the most vulnerable and do what we can personally to prevent the spread. At CCRP we will use our best circulation (opening windows and using fans) and strongly encourage masking and/or distancing when gathering with more than 12 people inside. This emphasis is especially at the 10.15 am service: because one of the things the Episcopal Church health expert strongly recommended against was unmasked singing indoors. We will continue to keep good masks available to all guests. I also want to revisit outdoor services (either Eucharist or Evening Prayer) during June (when those were best attended in the previous year).
During my illness, as a solo person, it was more than good to have our generous community offering their time to go on grocery runs and so on. I know how many people were concerned, and I feel your love. Furthermore, two weeks of Morning Prayer was problem-free, so thank you to all who made that holy. Our beloved Deacon Dennis is continuing to experience fatigue, so continue to hold him in prayer. We are smart adaptable loving people who have Jesus as our guide and have shown again and again how we can do the hard things together in his name. Take the best precautions you can and we hope to be with you in some way, outside or on-site or virtually, soon.