Good morning Dear Friends at St. Andrew’s,

In response to the recent news about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), including its arrival in Ottawa, our prayers at St. Andrew’s are for those who are ill, here and around the world, for their close friends and families. We pray as well for health and frontline workers and for communities and businesses that have been affected by the virus and its spread. We pray for governments and those involved in making public health decisions. Know too that my prayers continue for all of you.

In this letter I do want to outline what we are doing at St. Andrew’s as we follow public health advisories and advice. I also want to speak about staying in touch and connected. As practices of self-isolation and quarantine might affect some or all of us in the coming days, I know that will be lonely and at times fearful. Know that I, your elders, and your friends at church are at the other end of the phone and can be reached by email. Even as you might be staying at home, we are with you in prayer and always ready for a conversation or to respond to a note.

At St. Andrew’s we have gathered a small ad hoc group of those who are involved in the ministries of pastoral care and church programming. We will stay in touch with each other with regards to Coronavirus/Covid 19 response and keep you updated as well as things will undoubtedly progress and change. Canadians are being asked to be part of a public response aimed at slowing the spread of the virus so that the hospitals and the health care system are not overwhelmed all at once. Public Health officials tell us that the best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to any virus. General prevention measures that we will take at St. Andrews and ask you to adopt as well include:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 15 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. We will to the best of our ability keep hand sanitizer in public areas including the Sunday School hall (we have ordered more to have in reserve). Hand washing instructions have also been posted in each washroom at the church.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

• Avoid close contact with people who are ill. For members and volunteers of our pastoral care visiting team this means taking precautions to keep themselves healthy and keeping in touch more by phone and email instead of in person visits, particularly to hospitals.

• Stay home if you have influenza/respiratory virus symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, trouble breathing). Stay home but do stay in touch!

• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then immediately throw the tissue in the garbage and wash your hands. If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze or cough into your sleeve or arm. We have posted reminder signs about this around the church.

  Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

At St. Andrew’s we have also decided:

• We will not be serving cookies or any other food that is presented on a communal plate where people reach out and help themselves. The Wednesday evening study which includes a meal did continue last night but with the meal being served instead of being self serve. We will continue to assess this on a weekly basis.

• Welcomers in worship, and indeed all of us, will be asked to use alternate forms of greeting to hugs and handshakes

• For Wednesday communion the juice will be served in individual cups, and measures will be taken to minimize the touching of the plate the bread is served on. We will continue to assess this in the coming days. The next Sunday communion service is not until June and we will assess needs for that service in due course.

• The Rummage Sale has been cancelled as it involves a great deal of handling of goods in tight quarters and many present are particularly vulnerable.

• Any further decisions regarding upcoming events and gatherings and their possible cancellation will be posted on the website, in the bulletin and in the weekly email. At times it might be that we send out additional emails as well. For those who are not receiving the weekly email they can sign up to do so at http://www.standrewsottawa.ca/stayintouch.

• We have a very small staff at St. Andrew’s with little to no back up so if one or more are off for two weeks things may not get done as quickly as usual. This includes all admin, bookkeeping and maintenance/cleaning. Patience will be appreciated.

The following are the federal, provincial and city sites for updates:

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html

https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/index.aspx

https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus

Dear Friends, for the next few weeks and perhaps a bit longer Coronavirus/Covid 19 is going to be in the news and affecting our lives. Again, let’s keep each other and the world in prayer and let’s keep in touch with each other. As we continue to serve in Jesus name and in the love of God, we will continue to follow the advice of Public Health and do our part in supporting global and nationwide efforts to minimize the spread of the virus,

God bless you and keep you,

Karen