The Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah

Dear friends,

I write to you with a heart filled with love and care.  I have heard stories about how many of you and those you love are weathering this time that is fraught with a mixture of chaos, confusion, uncertainty, joy, deep listening, and finding purpose and meaning in your lives. I hear how some of you have family members impacted by the virus. Some of you are feeling ok, not minimizing the pain and suffering of others but finding time to just be at home or take a walk or work in the garden--”an introvert’s paradise” as one member described it. 

As with any experience, we as a faith community are going to experience this shelter in place in various ways. We each are trying to maintain our safety and health while concerned about others and their well-being.  As I said in my sermon last week, we can be physically distant without being distant from one another. This past week, we initiated a number of zoom virtual conferencing calls. Zoom is such a positive way for us to be with one another. We held our first zoom pastoral care call on Tuesday and our second will take place this afternoon. So much good happened on that first call! People checked in with how they were doing and found out resources and hope from others on the call. I am seeing how ironically we are able to be with one another in deeper ways than before. I think there are a number of ways to touch in that we didn’t have access to before. I know that previous generations did not have these technological resources that can bind us together even when we are physically missing seeing and being with one another in person.  Our zoom pastoral care calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be weekly times we can meet. I will be there for anyone who wants to show up. I also urge you to let me know if those pastoral care call times or days don’t work and I will schedule other meetings. Zoom covenant groups will begin in April so the small group ministry that is thriving in this church will go on much as before. As well, please know that you can talk to me privately by phone, e mail, text or zoom. Everything does not have to be in a group. Privacy and confidentiality necessitate private individual times too.

Finally, we will be starting our zoom worship  this Sunday which I am very excited about. During this Sunday, you will actually be able to see one another and extend it into a zoom coffee hour shortly after the service.  Colleagues tell me that it has been so important for people to be able to see each other face to face. You can also call in and just be on the audio call. Families can be together which I am really looking forward to seeing. You can show up in your pajamas and not worry about spilling your coffee in the sanctuary!

We will have live music from Kelly and others straight from the comfort of their homes. Much of this call will follow our usual format for worship and in the weeks to come, our zoom worship will include our Worship Associates and Storytellers again. 

This is a long missive to you but I want to let you know that we will come through this, stronger, more resilient, robust, loving and caring. I am so eager to be with you all in the countless ways we now are in touch.

My wife and I are in our 50th day of self-quarantine – sort of. Not big-time quarantine in a hospital or isolation in one room of our home. Closer to what most Americans are now experiencing, staying at home except for doctor visits and carefully orchestrated food purchases.

I contracted the flu the first week of February, confirmed by a lab test, and required bed rest and home stay. Within two weeks, my flu evolved into pneumonia, confirmed by an X-ray. Now seven weeks out, some of the pneumonia cough continues and my energy level isn’t back to normal. The pneumonia still appears well on the road to recovery, but I’m vulnerable to other illnesses at this point and now the coronavirus looms. Our self-imposed isolation continues. So what have we learned in our trek? Here’s our experience.

We greatly increased our non-physical social contacts. Telephone, FaceTime and Skype, emails and text to family, friends, neighbors, organizations. To people we haven’t reached out to for years. To relatives in other countries. We’ve listened carefully to their situations.

Expanding our social world has filled in a portion of our newly available time. Many of us regularly curse technology. Right now it’s been a life-saver in facilitating contacts. Ironically, we found this time of stress to be an opportunity to deepen relationships, including with each other.

We use newly available services such as home delivery of meals. We order groceries online and have them loaded into our trunk without getting out of the car. In each case we use hand wipes on all the food coming into the house and with any item contacted. We conscientiously wash our hands thoroughly after unloading. To some, this may seem overly careful, but we don’t see much room for error here.

Over time, we noticed items we initially overlooked in our self-imposed restrictions, such as the newspaper, mail, or food brought to our home by generous friends. Perhaps in the unlikely category of carrying contagion, we now alcohol-based wipe every item entering our home and then wash our hands, once again.

We are conscientiously social distancing, but we’re attempting to be creative. Our next-door neighbors recently visited us, bringing their own chairs, bottle of wine and glasses and sat in our yard while we stayed on the porch. We had a wonderful, laugh-filled, time.

We individually have alone time during the day. We each own our emotional state but care for each other. My wife has signed up for an online course. As my strength improves, I’m spending small, but increasing time working in the yard, something I find relaxing and calming. I write. We both set aside time to do home exercise. We schedule daily drives in the car in order to get out of the house. We’re more sensitive to those we’re dealing with on the phone, knowing that they, too, are under increased stress.

Beyond the cleanliness and general activity, the most important element of self-imposed confinement is our social interaction. An important piece of background information is in order. We like to spend time together – not this much time, of course. Still this lockdown has been a test. We’re attentive to feelings, stress and irritability. Tolerance, kindness and sensitivity are more in our thoughts.  On the rare occasions of snippiness, we catch ourselves quickly, alert to the unusual situation we are experiencing.

We believe our mutual physical and mental health is critical. It is even more crucial to those who do not begin with love and respect, those who may, under normal circumstances, have fractious or tense relationships. If you’re in that category, it’s time to up your own ante of goodness, kindness and tolerance.

Each of us needs to customize our social distancing. But it seems good advice that reaching out to loved ones and friends is critical as is an increase in social consciousness.

By all scientific information we have a long battle in front of us. I guess it can’t be said too often, we are in this together – all humanity.

Joel painstakingly summarized all of the responses to our survey of last summer in a five-page document that will guide decision-making over the next year.