Mid-week Message
from the Lead Developmental Minister
Aug. 10, 2021
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” John Steinbeck
Friends,
I heard the phrase “uncertainty fatigue” the other day. It pretty much sums up where most of us are these days. Just when we thought the world was opening up again, the Delta variant arrived and the situation changed quickly, leaving us wondering what the best course of action is now. The constant state of not knowing can be exhausting. While we are not out of the woods yet, we are not back at square one either.
Your Board of Directors and I, in consultation with the Reopening Task Force, Staff, and experts in the community are deliberating the best way move forward here at FUUN. We hope to have a revised plan for reopening to you sometime this week. Be watching your email.
Within the congregation we have members who are vaccinated and those who cannot be vaccinated. Children under the age of 12 are still waiting. We have members who are parents of unvaccinated children. Schools are reopening. We have members who are teachers. We have members who are health care workers who are once again dealing with hospitals full of COVID patients. We have members who have had COVID themselves, some now with Long-COVID. We have members who have lost loved ones to COVID. We have immunocompromised members who are at high risk. Tennessee is lagging behind most of the country in the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated. Vaccination dramatically reduces the risk but does not eliminate the risk. Vaccinated people can still become infected and may even transmit the virus asymptomatically. Decisions about when and how to reopen for in-person events must take all of this into consideration.
The UUA offers four key principles for planning to reopen:
- Root decisions in values of inclusion and consent.
- Follow the science.
- Go slow and be flexible.
- Be humane and realistic with expectations of ourselves and others.
The plan will undoubtedly be imperfect. It will likely please some and disappoint others. What I have come to know about you as a people is that you genuinely care about each other and the well-being of the congregation as a whole. We will get through this together – imperfectly – safe enough and good enough.
Yours in shared ministry,
Rev. Diane
Rev. Diane Dowgiert
leadminister@firstuunash.org