August 1, 2022
Please read this month’s “Prez and Trez” column. It’s another in our quarterly efforts to make church finances more transparent and to have all members feel informed and involved in financial matters. For this column, I’ll just update a few items that might otherwise fall through the cracks.
Our hybrid services will resume on September 4, which is the last Sunday of the summer schedule. Our Tech Coordinator, Jessica Maricich, has a full-time job which requires some weekend work in the summer. She will be back in the saddle with us in the fall. Our summer attendance has been great with many successful services completed. There are many more planned for the coming weeks. These will all be in person only.
The Safety Committee has done great work to improve our preparedness for various emergencies. We are currently planning several trainings that will take place in the fall. We’ll announce these in the next newsletter.
Our Return to Building Committee continues to monitor the ups and downs of COVID in our area. Since the current transmission risk level remains “High,” we are retaining a universal mask mode. While we know that people are eager to resume coffee hour and to move to a mask optional status, that will be based on improvements in our area as reported by the CDC and local health departments. The improvements we have made to building air quality and seating modifications continue to provide a Sunday morning worship environment that is as safe as possible.
We are planning to have a memorial lunch celebrating the life of Martha Atherton on September 25. It was one of Martha’s last wishes to provide a special catered lunch in recognition of her long membership at CCUU. We’ll have more details in the next newsletter.
Our new Interim Minister, Rev. Denise Cawley, will be joining us on September 1. She is participating in some mandatory trainings with the UUA in August. Her first Sunday in the pulpit will be our Ingathering Service on September 11, which will kick off the start of our new church year. It’s an exciting time at Countryside. I look forward to seeing all of you.
~ Tom Dempsey, CCUU Board President