Update from the RIPA (Return to In Person Activities) Advisory Group

The season of Advent is often referred to as a time of waiting.  There may be no better example of that than our perseverance through this quarantine. Perhaps in March of this year we all imagined that we could gather in person together for a service of Lessons and Carols, celebrating the birth of Jesus alongside our PCOL family.  With the numbers of positive COVID cases on a steep rise, we know that we will not be physically together this Christmas. However, we continue to gather and worship together as a faith community, giving new meaning to what Church looks like.   And so we continue to worship and wait, trusting God with adventurous expectation.

While we abide by safety guidelines, we want you to know that your RIPA Advisory Group members are hard at work.  We thank the members for their efforts to both ensure our safety and prepare for a safe return to in person activities.  We will have protocols in place and will be poised to rekindle in person activities as soon as it is safe to do so.

When might that return happen?  The short answer is…probably not earlier than April of 2021.

What are the determining factors related to our return?  There is not a set date or a single circumstance, but rather several events and decisions, based on science, that will guide our protocols.  We will look to guidance from the CDC and the NJ State Health Department.  We will continue to coordinate with our local Health Department. We will carefully monitor the infection rate in the state, as well as the (we pray successful) distribution of the vaccine.

We pray for our frontline workers, our first responders and healthcare providers and each and every family in our care.  We urge one and all to continue to adhere to infection control guidelines for a little longer…wearing a mask, washing hands, physically distancing.

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.  Galatians 6:9

Respectfully submitted,

Kris Deni
Communications, RIPA Advisory Group