Click to watch a video of this message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4tbavL8SJg&feature=youtu.be

Dear Friends,

Grace and Peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.  I am sharing this message with you today to announce that we are cancelling all public gatherings and worship services at Old St. Andrew’s Church through the end of March in response to the extreme challenges we are experiencing as humans in regard to the novel coronavirus. 

While I realize that there are thousands of opinions on social media and the news about this virus, I have done my best as your rector to seek the best advice on how we can best respond at this time.  Since there are still many unknowns about this virus and how drastically it may or may not affect the world, I find that our best action at this time is to practice “social distancing” to help slow down the virus’ spread and hopefully give time for medical clinics and hospitals to prepare and handle the potential significant increase of patients that could end up needing medical care.  To this end, I have discussed with the vestry officers and the staff how we should, as the OSA community, best respond in our current situation.  The vestry officers and staff agreed that our best response as of now to fighting this virus is to cease having public gatherings for the next two weeks.  Our OSA facility will be closed from today, Friday, March 13 until Friday, March 31.  During the week of March 22-March 28, I will work with the vestry officers and staff to assess the situation and make a decision how to proceed after the end of March. 

Please know that even though we are not having public gatherings, as your parish priest I am here for you.  If you need assistance with something please call me.  If you need someone to talk to, please call me.  If you have questions and concerns, please call me.

I also want to share that I am working with the staff to provide a live stream of a worship service on Sunday morning so that we can worship together as a community using the gift of technology as a tool to help us in this unprecedented experience of dealing with the Coronavirus.  I am working with Cory Bowie, our social media, website and communications staff member to send out links that you can use to access the live stream service the next two Sundays.  There will also be links to the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut’s page that gives information regarding the Coronavirus. 

Please know that I am praying for you, our worshipping community and the world as we seek ways to deal with this situation. 

God bless all of us!

Rev. Timothy Squier