As we learn to live in our Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives, we are also learning to create meaningful church experiences that work for as many people as possible. This website and
E-pistle are built to work well on smartphones and tablets and computers, so if you don't have WIFI, but do have a smart phone, we hope you can make it to online church through your cellular connection.

We heard you: You want a printable bulletin. So this week we have uploaded the bulletin (linked just above and here) for the March 22 -- this past Sunday -- service, including readings and home-made communion in what we hope is a handy and printable document.

The bulletin includes all the links you see above, including the music videos Peter Black has lovingly created (he spends hours and hours getting the lyrics timed to his piano track!) at his home so you can sing along to the hymns he chose for the service in our homes. 

We hope you enjoy following along and feel your church with you, always.

On Sunday mornings, we are holding coffee hour in our Online Friendship Hall. This Sunday, March 29, Pastor Sal will join in our Online Friendship Hall at 10a.m. at this link:
​ https://zoom.us/j/953967901

If you follow that link now, you can get the Zoom app working on your phone, tablet, or computer early, and be ready for Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, April 5, Pastor Sal and the music team will be broadcasting a complete online church service, and we will gather in the Online Friendship Hall after the service.  Watch next week's E-pistle for more news about that!

In a recent email, fellow congregant Stan Greene writes, "Earlier this week, I thought about a line from Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 'What else can one do ... other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?' That's a manifesto for these times."

He went on to say that he uses every opportunity to re-read this great piece of American liturgy and shared history, so resonant in this time -- recommended reading for times when we are forced to be quiet and are facing a tough path. Here are several ways to read or listen to it with fresh ears:

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

https://bit.ly/birminghamletteraudible

https://bit.ly/LetterBirminghamKindle

Some background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail

If you'd like to discuss this reading, bookclub-style, via Zoom, just write to Julie. We can make that happen.

If you are in Michigan and have need of food, home heating or electricity, dial 211.
If you are in urgent need of medical assistance, dial 911.
​
Stay home. Stay safe. Save lives. To combat the spread of COVID-19 in Michigan, Governor Whitmer signed the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order on March 25. For at least the next three weeks, all Michigan businesses and operations must temporarily suspend in-person operations that are not necessary to sustain or protect life, and all Michiganders must stay in their homes unless they’re a part of that critical infrastructure workforce, engaged in an outdoor activity, or performing tasks necessary to the health and safety of themselves or their family, like going to the hospital or grocery store.

YOU CAN:

• Go to the grocery store or pick up take-out food.
• Go to the pharmacy to pick up a needed prescription.
• Engage in outdoor activities like walking, hiking, running, biking.
• Go to the hospital or secure any care necessary to address a medical emergency or to preserve your health or the health of a loved one.
• Fill your car with gas.
• Return to Michigan to a home or place of residence from outside the State.
• Leave the State for a home or residence elsewhere.
• Walk your pets and take them to the veterinarian for needed medical care.

YOU MAY NOT:

• Leave the home to work unless your employer designates you as a critical infrastructure worker.
• Participate in any public gatherings.
• Visit someone in the hospital, nursing home, or other residential care facilities (with limited exceptions).
• Go to the mall or to restaurants.

BUSINESSES THAT REMAIN OPEN FOR IN-PERSON WORK MUST TAKE AGGRESSIVE STEPS TO MINIMIZE THE VIRUS’S SPREAD. THEY MUST:

• Promote remote work to the fullest extent possible.
• Restrict the number of workers present in-person on the job.
• Keep employees at least six feet from one another to the maximum extent possible and enabling social distancing for customers who are standing in line.
• Any other social distancing practices and mitigation measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

Information around this outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.   

For those who have questions about the state’s actions to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, please call the COVID-19 Hotline at 1-888-535-6136 between 8AM - 5PM daily. 

​Dear DUCCies,

Well, life has changed rather dramatically for us for the time being. Sunday morning church services are suspended until the threat passes, and meetings of 10 or more people are going online or being suspended. 


And it hasn't been easy, has it? At Lent we are always asked to go inward, be still, be contemplative. But perhaps not quite this inward? 

I know this is much harder for those of us who are grieving, who live alone, who are coping with illness. Who are extroverts. Please remember we are still here, still together in spirit, and we are finding ways to check in on one another, visit, pray, find some ways to laugh. 

Three of our church members in the official virus risk group (over 60) in my neighborhood just had our first Zoom video chat yesterday. It was super easy and really helps! Others are using their phones' video calling services -- Facetime, Skype, Facebook Messenger/Video, Google Duo -- to check on one another and neighbors and kids and grandkids, to call for no special reason at all, just to hear voices and see faces. It's not the same, but can relieve feelings of isolation. Please make time to check with those you know might be struggling with this. Meanwhile, I've scheduled Zoom Cafe meetups for us for 10am on Sunday mornings. Here is the link. Or you can find it by clicking on this event on our Church Calendar.

And as always, if you are having a hard time, or need help, or someone to talk with, drop a note to your Congregational Care Team. We are here for you!

This E-pistle will look and act just a bit different for the rest of these Sabbatical weeks, and then when Pastor Sal returns, we will think again about how to be the church in this time.

Rest assured, Sal will be back. He is safe. Gregg is safe. 

This E-Pistle carries our first experiment in Home Churching, after the announcements, including our readings, prayers, and  Sabbatical speakers' homilies, a kind of online kit for Being the Church. These elements will be delayed by four days in lectionary time. That is, last Sunday's service is in this E-Pistle, this coming Sunday's next week, etc. 

If we need to reach out to you quickly, we will use email, as we did last week. If you did not get our announcement about services by email last week, it's because I don't have your correct email address. Please feel free to drop me a line if you want to be sure to get these more urgent email notes from us.

Meanwhile your Church Council has been meeting online and in person. They are staying abreast of Federal, State, and Local updates and recommendations to citizens and churches about how to mitigate the spread of the virus, #FlattenTheCurve, and keep our whole community safe.

If you wonder whether a church group or event is scheduled or suspended, the best place to keep up is our online calendar. Click on events to get all the details. 

Peace and Grace on your hearts and homes, beloved DUCCies.
I love you all so much (said Dorothy, and),
Julie

One Great Hour of Sharing® is one of four special mission offerings of the United Church of Christ. This Lenten Offering supports the disaster, refugee, and development ministries of the UCC.  The suggested offering date for the One Great Hour of Sharing offering is March 22, 2020, but since most of the UCC churches in this country won't be meeting on Sunday, please either click right here any time, to give securely online or mail your gift today to One Great Hour of Sharing - United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Financial Services, 6th Floor, Cleveland, Ohio 44115. Thank you for caring for all of God's people.

In these early days of social distancing, it can be awkward, socially, to figure out how to renegotiate personal space. Practicing some old fashioned and newfangled social cues are necessary here. Making way for others on the sidewalk, at doorways, gesturing to allow people in front of you, holding up a hand to remind dear friends to stop -- all of these gestures and habits will help us all remind each other to keep 6-to-10 feet from one another. It's an automatic gesture to reach out to shake hands, but try hard to develop a new habit, touching your heart and giving a slight bow, or use the Namaste signal, or cross your arms over your heart and make eye contact. Or... wear a really, really big hoop skirt! Whatever it takes. We can do what it takes.

THE COORDINATED COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO FEED SCHOOL FAMILIES DURING THE COVID-19 SCHOOL CLOSURE. 

Saugatuck Public Schools and Fennville Public Schools will make two meals a day available to all students during the State of Michigan mandated school closure.

Up to two meals a day are available for each student according to the schools’ regular meal service. A coalition of community partners, spearheaded by Children First Lakeshore and Community Church of Douglas, will provide supplemental meals distributed through the delivery routes of each school district. Beginning this week, both school districts will offer meal delivery along bus routes as well as at pick-up sites during the week.

Children First Lakeshore and partners will provide weekend and supplemental food also delivered by the school districts. The supplemental food is designed to feed students beyond the two meals the school districts are providing. The delivery schedules and pick-up information is different for each school district. 

We are Working to Raise 120K to Feed the Gap!

• Raised: $6,000
• New Goal: $114,000

If you can help contribute to this cause, click here.
If you can volunteer to help feed the kids click here.

If you would like to send a paper check, send it here:
Children First Lakeshore, PO Box 980 Douglas, MI 49406
For more information email [email protected]

The area churches are supporting our government offices, police departments and fire departments, all first responders, by gathering and mobilizing a team of volunteers who can help out with various tasks and needs of community members. If you are healthy, mobile, and willing to help in this way, go to SDVolunteers.com, and add your name to this list.

Happy Birthdays and Anniversaries
March 16- Gemina Petruzzelli,  17- Peter Black, Dan Mack

Financial Stewardship Report:
March 15 
Attendance: 0
Easter Flowers: $60
Collections by mail: $870 
Online Giving: $875
Total: $1,805

Thank you!! Your generous giving allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service.

At this time, without our in-service collections, our church especially needs you to consider giving online, which is easily done by clicking here to our website.  

Or sending your checks by mail to:
Douglas UCC, 56 Wall Street, P.O. Box 519, Douglas, MI, 49406

(For home churching, you may wish to light candles, put on some soft, wordless music, find a place in your home where you will be undisturbed, silence your cell phones and computers... )

Unison Prayer
Deep within me is a deep and insistent craving for that which the Christ Spirit alone can give. In the past, I may have wrongly interpreted this craving as a thirst for success or material things. Now, I clearly understand that my thirst is for a greater consciousness of God's love and for a greater expression of Divine wisdom. My true desire is to have more of the character of God made manifest in my every thought, word, and deed. I know the Christ Spirit can give me what nothing else can give. Therefore I nourish my thirst, knowing it is leading me to that complete awareness of Christ which satisfies completely at all times. Amen.

Assurance of Grace and Peace

One: Peace be with you.
Many: And also with you.
One: Let us offer one another a sign of Peace.

(Here you may wish to hold your hands toward a window in your home, and send the peace and light out into the world.)

Passing the Peace

Spirit of life come unto me. 
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.  
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea,
move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close – wings set me free. 
Spirit of life come to me, come to me.  

Words of Integration & Guidance, by Bishop John Shelby Spong  

Almost any poll of regular church goers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. Yet, I suspect that these devotees of John’s Gospel would be both shocked and angered by contemporary insights into this treasured book. Among the conclusions that I have reached in my intensive study of John’s Gospel are these: There is no way it was written by any of the disciples of Jesus. The author of this book is not a single individual, but is at least three different writers/editors, who did their layered work over a period of 25 to 30 years. Not one of the miracles recorded in this book was, in all probability, something that actually happened. This means that Jesus never changed water into wine, fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish or raised Lazarus from the dead.  Many of the characters who appear in the pages of this book are literary creations of its author and were never intended to be understood as real people, who actually lived in history. John’s Gospel seems to ridicule anyone who might read this book as a work of literal history. For example, Jesus says to Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” Nicodemus, the literalist, says: “Born again? How can I crawl back into my mother’s womb?” Jesus says to the Samaritan woman: “I will give you living water.” The Samaritan woman, a literalist, responds: “Man, you don’t even have a bucket!” The Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. leaned on John’s Gospel as literal history in order to formulate the creeds and ultimately to undergird such doctrines as the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity. John’s Gospel is not a literal history, but rather a symbolic text to describe the experience of the human breaking the boundaries of consciousness and entering into the transformation available inside a sense of a mystical oneness with God. Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm shift of the first order.

The Words of Holy Scripture
One: A Reading of Scripture from Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness, the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages,
as God commanded. They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink. The
people quarreled with Moses, and said,
"Give us water to drink," Moses said to them,
"Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test God?"
But the people thirsted there for water; and the
people complained against Moses and said,
"Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and
our children and livestock with thirst?"
So Moses cried out to God,
"What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."
God said to Moses,
"Go on ahead of the people,
and take some of the elders of Israel with you;
take in your hand the staff with which you struck
the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you
on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock,
and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink."
Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and
tested God, saying,
"Is God among us or not?"

One: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
Many: Thanks be to God.

The Gospel Lesson
One: The Holy Gospel according to John 4:5-42
Many: Glory to you, O Christ.
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his
son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." The Samaritan woman said to him,  "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
woman of Samaria" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered
her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,'  you
would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him,
"Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you
greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank
from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those
who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will
become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give
me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." Jesus
said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no
husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband' for you have had five
husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The
woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this
mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to
her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship God neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit
and truth, for the God seeks such as these. God is spirit, and those who worship God must
worship in spirit and truth."

One: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Many: Praise to you, O Christ.

​Max moved from Kalamazoo to Douglas in 2015 with his husband, Doug, and their dog, Harry. They now have adopted a cat named Pansy. Max spent 45 years as a hairdresser beginning in Los Angeles, later St. Joseph, MI, then Kalamazoo, and now Saugatuck. Max was a theatre major at WMU, and he was in pre-ministerial training with the Unity Church in the 1990’s. He enjoys painting and is actively involved in our church community.

Celebration of Holy Communion
One: God be with you.
Many: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
Many: We lift them up to God.
One: Let us give thanks to God.
Many: It is good to give God thanks and praise.

And now we prepare the gifts of bread and wine in Holy Communion with
our unseen, but fully felt congregation.

In the United Church of Christ, we say, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, please know that you are invited, welcome, and worthy to receive these gifts.” And, so, with great joy, let us join our voices together and sing:

Creation’s Praise
Santo, santo, santo, mi corazon te adora.
Mi corazon te sabe decir, santo eros Dios.
Holy, holy, holy, my heart, my heart adores you.
My heart is glad to say the words, you are holy God. 

(Take a section of the communion bread in your hands and say:)

At the last meal that Jesus shared with his friends, he took some bread, and he said,
“Thank you” to God for it. As he broke the bread, Jesus said to his friends,
“This bread is my body. Whenever you eat it, remember me.”

(Hold the section of the bread up high for a moment after you say this)

(Then, pour your juice or wine into a cup, and say...)

(Then, place both your hands over the bread and wine and say...)

And, so, we call upon the Holy Spirit to bless these gifts of bread and wine, and to
bless all those who approach this table to receive these gifts this morning, that they
may recognize that the Presence and the Power of the Christ dwells
with them and within them.

Breaking of Bread – Let Us Be Bread
Let us be bread, blessed by the Lord,
broken and shared, life for the world.
Let us be wine, love freely poured. 
Let us be one with the Lord. 
Say:  I receive the Bread of Life.
(Eat.)

Say: I receive the Cup of Love, the Drink of Compassion.
(Drink.)

See your normal place in the congregation. See yourself holding the hands, and all the hands, holding hands. linking us all together. Breathe that in for a minute. And then say...

Prayer of Thanksgiving & the Lord’s Prayer
Our Mother/Father, always and everywhere, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
​For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Benediction
Our worship this morning has come to a close, but now our service in the world continues. So, let us go forth to live fully, to love wastefully, and to have the courage to be all that God has created us to be. We are a grateful people, and so it is. Amen.

Our church council held an emergency meeting Thursday morning and voted to follow advice from the Centers for Disease Control, our governor, and Michigan's Department of Public Health and cancel Sunday services until the threat of passing along the coronavirus has lessened to the degree that large meetings are deemed safe.

We encourage everyone to practice social distancing, stay home if you are sick, wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your face, and do everything you can to help mitigate the spread of this disease.

We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution and love and concern for the welfare of our congregants and our community. 

Here in the E-Pistle, starting next week, we will begin to share our Sunday messages and readings, allowing each of us to enter into worship together even as we are separated physically. 

If you know of anyone who does not or cannot receive the E-pistle, please let us know, so we can help them feel less isolated from their faith community during this time.

Even as we back away from large gatherings for now, our service in the world continues. If you are struggling with social distancing, with finding the supplies you need, and especially with any illness itself,  please write to [email protected]. Your church is here for you, and we will help.

The Michigan Department of Public Health is recommending that groups of 10 or more who serve at-risk populations should consider canceling their meetings, staggering them (meeting in smaller groups at different spaces and times) or using distance-meeting platforms (Zoom Google Hangouts, Uberconference) where possible. At-risk groups are: older adults, and people who have serious chronic medical conditions like: Heart Disease, Diabetes, Lung Disease.

As church groups made up of older adults and serving older adults, each of us needs to continue our work in the world as well and as safely as we can. Consider ways to promote social distancing while you reach out to the community. Please have this conversation with your groups via email, and work together to decide how best to continue your work in the world. 

Of course if you feel unwell, please stay home from group meetings.

If you need to schedule or unschedule space on campus, please email Julie: [email protected]

"What a lovely service we had last week! KUDOS to church member Emily Tieman for her inspiring and brave message: "The Wind of the Spirit, and to all of our volunteers and service leaders!

KUDOS to church member Larry Fuerst who has been honored with a very special award to recognize his 50 years piloting aircraft. On March 6 Larry received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the Federal Aviation Administration at the West Michigan Regional Airport in Holland. The Master Pilot Award is awarded by the FAA and recognizes pilots who have contributed and maintained safe flight operations for 50 or more consecutive years of piloting aircraft. See the article in the Holland Sentinel detailing Larry's award. It's a lovely tribute.

Our 2020 Lenten Devotionals are a great way to observe Lent and bring your church home with you during our Coronavirus break. The devotionals are on sale in the Friendship Hall. They are $5 apiece. If you need help getting one, just write to us at [email protected], and we will make sure that happens.

​A remembrance of Jesus' last supper with his friends, and a powerful service each year, Maundy Thursday Service will be held on April 9. Space is limited for the simple meal served at 6:30 pm in the Friendship Hall before the service, so please sign up on the special Maundy Thursday meal board in the Friendship Hall. All are welcome to the service in the Sanctuary, which begins at 7:30 pm.

On Easter Sunday, we hope to have our altar filled with Easter Lilies!  Please consider purchasing an Easter Lily plant for $15. We are happy to take this order by mail or at the church office from 10am to 1pm weekdays. You can do so in honor or memory of a loved one, whose name will appear in the bulletin on Easter Sunday. You can take the plant home after our Easter service. Thank you so much!

As we will not be meeting at the church during this coronavirus season, we humbly ask that you consider making your regular donations to the church through our online  giving system.
It's easy and fast, and helps keep the work of the church going.
Thank you for remembering DUCC in your giving!

​March 8:  Attendance: 91
Collection plate:   $495
Easter flower orders:   $45
In kind (Stephen Ministry training materials): $100
Other unspecified cash receipts:  $44
    Online Giving: $2,274
Total: $2,958
​
Thank you for your generous giving which
allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service.
​​You can also give securely online by clicking ONLINE GIVING.

KUDOS to the Social Justice Team, moderator Elizabeth Estes, and church member Max Brown  for hosting a powerful, informative, action-oriented, and well attended forum on Domestic Violence in our community on Sunday, March 01. Watch the E-Pistle and Facebook page for posts on actions we can take to help reduce violence in our homes and help the people who experience it. Special thanks to our visitors from Sylvia's Place and Resilience, who work the front lines of this issue every day. Please consider supporting these organizations with your donations. 

(If you still have clocks to set, then) please set your clocks to "Spring Forward" 1 hour when you head to bed Saturday night so that you won't miss the lovely March 8 service we've planned for you!

After church this week, please join us in the Friendship Hall for our 2nd Sunday of the Week Potluck! Bring a dish to share!

As new cases of the coronavirus are reported in other countries and across the United States, United Church of Christ leaders are urging education, caution and common sense -- sharing a few basic guidelines to enable congregations and other UCC organizations to find useful, relevant information to plan their course of action.

Coronavirus (CoVid-19) is a respiratory illness that causes flu-like symptoms. As of Feb. 27, there were 60 reported cases of coronavirus in the U.S. Doctors at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that while they expect to see the number of cases increase as the disease spreads, they stress that the immediate risk of contracting the disease remains low.

Typical symptoms of coronavirus include fever and a cough that may progress to pneumonia, causing breathing difficulties, including shortness of breath. Most people who get it will contract a mild to moderate illness, a bit like flu. Generally, coronavirus can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer or chronic lung disease. Presently the death rate is low, around 2 percent, which is a little above the death rate for flu. More information is available in this video, "5 Things to Know About COVID-19," from the CDC.

"Understandably, there are many questions circulating regarding appropriate precautionary measures around the coronavirus as news of this health threat continues to unfold," said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, UCC associate general minister, noting that the basic information shared below should not be construed as medical advice, but as best practices and basic precautions. "Because this is a rapidly changing situation, it will be crucial to keep checking the latest guidance and information from the CDC."

Some of these everyday precautions, focused on good hygiene measures, are common sense -- helpful to keep in mind anytime and especially during colds and flu season. It's also important to note that this information, gathered from a number of sources, is far from complete. Continue to check the reliable sources noted below -- the CDC, the World Health Organization – to keep abreast of situation in the U.S. If transmission of the coronavirus changes significantly, changes in hygiene protocols may be suggested to optimize protection.

Here are a number of precautionary measures the UCC Human Resources Department shared with staff in the national offices.
• Stay home if you are feeling sick.
• Wash your hands frequently.
• Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands.
• Disinfect surfaces used regularly.
• Use hand sanitizer.
• Avoid close contact with someone who is sick.
• Practice these precautionary measures at home and pass this information along to family and friends.

If you have traveled internationally during the last 14 days, feel sick with fever or cough, or have difficulty breathing the CDC has several recommendations:
• Seek medical advice. Call ahead before you go to a doctor's office or emergency room.
• Tell them about your recent travel and your symptoms.
• Avoid contact with others.
• Do not travel while sick.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve when coughing or sneezing.
• Clean your hands often by washing them with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60%–95% alcohol immediately after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose. Soap and water should be used if hands are visibly dirty.

UCC Disaster Ministries has developed a web section for congregations that includes a word from Blackmon, a bulletin insert and an excellent resource from the Southern New England Conference UCC, with a checklist and advice for community engagement, worship (e.g. communion, offering, passing the peace), communications, leadership backup, pastoral care and even fiscal concerns.
"I believe that, as the faith community, we have a special responsibility to care for our fellow congregants and communities," Blackmon writes. "When we are prepared, we are in a better position to help others. Our demonstration of love of neighbor also requires us to counter scapegoating and prejudice such as already has been shown to some Chinese and Chinese-Americans. They are not to blame for the coronavirus!"

CoVid-19, first detected in China in December, has now been documented in patients in Iran, Italy, South Korea, France, Germany and Japan. According to the Washington Post, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Nigeria have just reported their first cases, all which have links to Italy, WHO officials said.

"Our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself. It's fear, rumors and stigma," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a daily briefing on Feb. 28. "Most cases can still be traced to known contacts or clusters of cases. We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities. As long as that's the case, we still have a chance at containing this virus."

Tedros said that more than 20 vaccines are in development globally, and several anti-viral drugs are in clinical trials. Health officials expect the first results in a few weeks.
Bookmark these resources for developing information:

• CDC COVID-19 updates.
• CDC New travel alerts.
• World Health Organization updates.
• WHO Preparedness resources.
• Coronavirus resources from the UCC.
•  Ohio Department of Health information.
• FEMA, general disaster guidance for Houses of Worship.

In addition to last week's recommendation that we do not shake hands, hug, or kiss during Passing of the Peace, UCC recommends, and our Church Council approved, these changes to communion to reduce virus transmission, until the threat of CoVid 19 is lifted: 

• Eliminating intinction -- we will no longer dip bread into wine or sip from a chalice, but will use disposable cups for the wine as we do for juice.
• Asking communion leaders and juice/wine prep folks to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer before preparing the gifts of bread and wine.
• Asking communion leaders to drop the bread into open, cupped palms rather than allowing congregants to help themselves from the plate.

We appreciate everyone's help in reducing possible exposure by making our weekly communion tradition healthier for all of us.

On Easter Sunday, we hope to have our altar filled with Easter Lilies!  Please consider purchasing an Easter Lily plant for $15. You can do so in honor or memory of a loved one, whose name will appear in the bulletin on Easter Sunday. You can take the plant home after our Easter service. To purchase a plant, please use the special "Flower Offering" envelopes in the pews these next Sundays. Please be sure to write the name of your honored/loved one clearly on the envelope with your own name. Thank you so much!

​Walk for Warmth 
Walk for Warmth is right around the corner and Community Action is looking for sponsors, as well as participants.
 
Community Action believes that when families get the right resources at the right time, our community becomes stronger and more resilient. Community Action is excited to join the statewide effort to raise awareness concerning people experiencing heat-related emergencies with our 3rd annual “Walk for Warmth” 5K Run/Walk at The Lynx in Otsego on March 21, 2020 from 9am to 11am. Their “Walk for Warmth” will shine a spotlight on the need for emergency utility assistance in Allegan County and raise funds for families in Allegan County facing shut-off notices.
 
This year the state has cut utility assistance for many agencies, ours alone was cut by nearly 70%. Last year we were able to raise $6,350.  Come support the event and help us double that amount so we can help even more families struggling throughout the Allegan County.

We are inviting you to join us in 2020. Sign up can be done online by going to, https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/Otsego/CAAC2019WalkforWarmth or by completing the form attached and returning it to Community Action of Allegan County. Registration cost is $35 for adults and $15 for children with children under 5 being free.  Also included is a continental breakfast and a really awesome long sleeve ¼ zip ‘tech shirt’ for adults.
Documents: 

• Registration form 
• Sponsorship packet 
• Information flyer 

Peace and Blessings,
Sue Fleming

A remembrance of Jesus' last supper with his friends, and a powerful service each year, Maundy Thursday Service will be held on April 9. Space is limited for the simple meal served at 6:30 pm in the Friendship Hall before the service, so please sign up on the special Maundy Thursday meal board in the Friendship Hall. All are welcome to the service in the Sanctuary, which begins at 7:30 pm.

​March 1:  Attendance: 131
Collection Plate: $1,253    Online Giving: $1,269.91
Total: $2,522.91

Thank you for your generous giving which
allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service.
​​You can also give securely online by clicking ONLINE GIVING.