COVID-19 Updates and Resources
January 10, 2024
As we settle into the new year, a reminder that COVID-19 is again on the rise in New Hampshire. It is important to be mindful of the risks. We can all do our part to protect the older people and the vulnerable among us by ensuring air-filtration systems work properly, encouraging those who are sick to stay home, and checking the CDC website for the latest updates and resources.
March 4, 2022 - Masks at Worship and Coffee Hour: "Be Guided by Love," 1 Corinthians
Guided Autonomy
Rapid and declining rates of infection, hospitalization, and deaths due to COVID are an occasion for us to revise our guidance for our coming together for worship and fellowship. People have been diligent in wearing masks for their own and other’s protection. We are a mostly vaccinated population. We have been careful to protect children for whom vaccines are not available, and to provide worship opportunities over the past two years for all.
The Center for Disease Control now believes that when the risk alert falls to medium or low, people should feel more at ease to gather indoors unmasked. Please visit COVID-19 by County | CDC to find the local guidance for COVID by county. As of Thursday morning March 3, 2022, Sullivan, Grafton, and Strafford counties remained at high risk while all other counties were at medium risk.
Those who are immunosuppressed or feel uncomfortable not wearing masks should feel free to continue to wear them. Know that we have at least one priest in the diocese whose experience of COVID led to pneumonia and longer-term illness. Therefore, we should remain aware and careful when we feel ill or are experiencing symptoms that indicate a contagious disease.
That said, once your county’s risk level is at medium or low, we can feel more at ease about gathering unmasked for both worship and coffee hour, respecting individual’s choice to remain masked out of concern for themselves or others.
I recommend that we continue to refrain from offering communion by the common cup until we pass further out of the pandemic. Let us revisit that recommendation in the coming weeks and as Easter approaches.
I will continue to support your “guided autonomy” in making these decisions based on your local context, with all the tools and information available.
It is in the hours just before nightfall and before daybreak that are the most dangerous for driving. Being neither in the depths of a contagious outbreak nor in the full absence of COVID makes life and decision making awkward. I pray that that the complexities of this moment due to the arrival of a real and lasting day of life post-pandemic.
Yours Faithfully in Christ the Good Physician,
+Rob