In the Bishop’s corner, I will be able to post updates during an emergency with comments regarding how we are responding to the emergency as a ward. We hope that this will be most helpful to you. - Bishop Penrose
3/21/2020
Good morning ward members. I hope all are well in our homes during the shelter in place initiative and more recent stay at home order. While our meetinghouse is closed, I encourage you to continue your sabbath day worship in your homes. Ideas for activities include, prayer, fasting and study from these resources: the scriptures, the Come, Follow Me program, churchofjesuschrist.org and familysearch.org. Our family also enjoys Don’t Miss This on youtube with Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler. I strongly encourage you to use technology (phone, text, email, facebook, etc…) to minister to other members of our ward and to your friends that are not members in our community. Some families that have received approval from me are administering the sacrament through proper priesthood authority in their homes. I am aware of other members that desire the sacrament. We will make arrangements for worthy priesthood holders to visit your homes to administer the sacrament at an appropriate time in the future. Please let me know if you would like to be included for these visits.
Thankfully to my knowledge, none of our members have tested positive for the virus. We do have members that are suffering with other ailments, though. Our ward council is actively addressing the needs of these members and periodically sends emails with an invitation to each of you to include these brothers and sisters who are dear to us in your fasting and prayers.
As many businesses have closed or minimized services, some of you are not working. Our ward council will work to provide important information on how to receive assistance efficiently from the government. I encourage you also to reach out to your families for help and please reach out to me. I have access to commodities from the Bishop’s Storehouse and funds from fast offerings available to you.
While we experience the COVID-19 Pandemic I will continue to add to this blog with updates.
Love, Bishop Penrose
COVID-19 Transition to Sacrament Meeting
/Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope this message finds you well. As life begins to resume some normalcy, I hope that you and your families are physically, spiritually, and emotionally well. These are unusual times and I am grateful to our Church leaders who guide us.
You likely received an e-mail recently from the First Presidency indicating that sacrament meetings may resume based on government guidelines and Church policies. This past week, the bishops of our building met with the stake presidency to council together on how we can conduct our meetings with the continued social distancing guidelines, physical safety, and logistics of limited-sized large meetings. We have come to a consensus on how to move forward while meeting the policies outlined to stakes and wards by the First Presidency and the Area Presidency.
First, it is the desire that all members who wish, partake of the sacrament at least once a month whether in your own home, as authorized by the bishop, or in sacrament meeting. To that end, we will be moving forward with the following:
1. Our ward will have the second and fourth Sundays from 9 am to 12 noon in which we will have access to the meetinghouse. The Spanish Group will meet every week at 6:30 pm. Our first Sunday for sacrament meetings only, will be June 14th.
2. As we are limited to 99 individuals in a sacrament meeting and have a desire to limit exposure to at risk individuals, we will divide the ward into 2 groups. The first group that will meet from 9:30 to 10:15 will include members age 65 and older and members that suffer from illnesses that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. The second group will meet from 11:00 to 11:45 and include families with children and otherwise healthy members younger than 65 years of age.
3. It is strongly encouraged that members wear a mask while at the meetinghouse. Masks are proven to be effective in protecting others if you have the virus but are asymptomatic by preventing the spread of disease through exhaled droplets. Signs will be placed to remind you or our expectations. We will provide a mask to those that do not have one. We recognize the difficulty of having small children wear masks. Children two years of age and younger should not wear a mask. Parents, use your best judgement for those circumstances.
4. If you have a compromised immune system, or feel ill, or are in a higher-risk age group of 65 and older, do not feel compelled to attend sacrament meeting at this time. Of course, anyone is welcome, regardless of your age or circumstance (other than being ill), but it is encouraged that you weigh your own circumstances and decide if it is right for you. Priesthood holders who have previously been approved by the bishop to administer the sacrament in your own home or in the home to someone you minister, is still approved. Although sacrament meeting in the Church is an ideal environment, as you would expect, at this time, the most important aspect of each Sunday is that you partake of the sacrament either in your home or in sacrament meeting to renew your covenants and remember your commitments and covenants to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
5. As these approved sacrament meetings, held twice a month, will be unique, the meeting time will be shortened to not exceed 45 minutes. Additionally, every two of three rows will be left empty to allow social distancing between family groups. Anyone in a single household should sit together but remain separated from other non-household people by six feet. As we are a very social people, please refrain from hugs or handshaking at this time.
6. For the sacrament, priesthood holders wash their hands thoroughly upon arrival and then use sanitizer just before blessing or passing. He will use the empty rows to pass the sacrament to each head of household. With both bread and water, priesthood holders will present a tray that has cups spaced every other spot and will also hold another empty tray in which to deposit used cups. The head of household will grab a cup of bread or water for each member of the family and pass the cup to each individual. Each priesthood holder will use hand sanitizer after the sacrament. Sacrament trays will be washed with soap and water before each sacrament meeting session.
7. We have been asked to provide four bottles of pump hand sanitizer for each meeting. Members can use them if they desire, but it is not a requirement. They will be placed in each lobby, the pulpit (for speakers, who desire it) and for the sacrament table, in which the priesthood brethren will use it prior to breaking the bread (they will additionally be asked to thoroughly wash their hands before the service begins). We also are required to wipe down the wood on the pews and door handles prior to and following each of the two services. We are having difficulty finding these items. If you have any pump hand sanitizer (with at least 63% alcohol), or Lysol disinfectant spray that kills 99.99% of germs, or Clorox/Lysol disinfectant wipes, and would be willing to donate them for sacrament meeting use, please let me know.
8. While visitors interested in hearing the gospel are most welcome, visitors from other wards are discouraged at this time.
9. Although we will have opening and closing songs and a sacrament hymn, hymn books will not be available for the foreseeable future, nor will printed programs be available. I encourage you to download the Church hymn application on your phone, if possible. Additionally, we will stick with some of the most well-known hymns for now.
10. Please check your temperature and that of your children with a thermometer before you come. Anyone who has a temperature of 100 degrees or higher must stay home. Also, any member with other symptoms including shortness of breath, coughing, fatigue, running nose, sore throat, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell, chills, headache, muscle or body aches, nausea or vomiting should stay home. Doors will be propped open to the foyer only on the north side of the chapel for entrance so that no one will need to touch doorknobs. Please do not enter through other doors. Only the bathrooms on the north side of the building will be available. The doors to those bathrooms will be kept slightly ajar to avoid having to touch doorknobs. We will exit the sacrament meeting row by row immediately after the closing prayer through the doors toward the front of the chapel that will be propped open. The chapel will be thoroughly cleaned at that time. Members will have the opportunity to visit in the open air of the parking lot if they desire. We ask that you continue to do your best at staying 6 feet from one another.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is not by coincidence that we have recently studied about two groups of righteous people in the Book of Mormon that found themselves in difficult circumstances. They were reminded by their leaders of the Lord’s power of deliverance in times past. Their burdens were lightened and their hope strengthened to endure and then…. they each were delivered. The Lord is similarly mindful of us today! He loves us, He strengthens us, He lightens our burdens, He is delivering us from this, very dangerous pandemic. While His arm extends to deliver us, in a similar way, His hands are stretched out still in invitation for us to come closer and Hear Him. I invite each of you to seek Him out for healing and increased strength, especially while preparing to partake of the sacrament. Through His atonement your wounds will heal and you will be empowered as a disciple of Jesus Christ to move forward and one day be lifted up and delivered from mortality to Eternal Life.
Love,
Bishop Penrose