Dear Ones,

I recently saw a meme on Facebook that read: “Dear Mom, Is that offer to slap me into next year still available?”

This year has been difficult. When we made the decision to suspend all in-person worship services and meetings back in March, I thought the Centers for Disease Control would work hard to get COVID-19 under control.

We’re coming up on six months of suspended in-person gatherings at UUFB. Our guiding principles have been following the science, and safety first. Here are a few of the things we know.

• We know that attending a church service is among the riskier things one can do, lots of people in an enclosed space, even with “precautions.” It’s simply not safe to be breathing the same air for a prolonged period of time.
• We know that our membership skews toward those most vulnerable.
• We know that there are a lot of researchers working around the clock to better understand this virus, to develop effective treatments, and to develop an effective vaccine.

And I know we ache to be together again, even as South Carolina DHEC projects a rise in infections over the next few months, peaking at the end of the year at three times the previous peak number of infections just this past July.

We don’t know when this will end. All we can really do is follow the science and take the appropriate precautions. Wear our masks in public. Limit exposure by limiting our time in indoor spaces like stores and restaurants. Hope and pray. And keep busy!

In addition to being your minister, I’ve been reading books that have been waiting on my shelf, and working on developing a couple new good habits. I started baking again, and started a new knitting project with beautiful yarn I purchased on a trip we took last year.

How are you keeping busy? Are you pulling out abandoned projects, or starting new ones? Developing new skills? Making lots of phone calls and writing letters advocating for your candidate or cause? Let me know!

Thank you for being here, for being part of this Fellowship, and for staying connected! I love you. We will get through this. Keep breathing and stay safe, everyone.

Blessings,
Rev. Lori Hlaban