Namaste, and warm wishes from our board members. This important communication outlines when and how we will transition from on-line services to face-to-face worship and fellowship.
First and foremost, our commitment is to help ensure the safety of all our members. We re-opened on July 18th for the 11:00 AM service.
To help guide us, the following protocols and community agreements were established by the board, after much input from our Unity members as well as from CDC, state and county health officials.
- The wearing of masks indoors is mandated by New Hanover County; at any time, if you’re not feeling well, please stay home and continue to join our services on Facebook.
- For social distancing, we will provide two kinds of seating areas:
- areas having socially distanced seating, and
- areas having closer seating (for groups of 4-8 people who choose to sit closer together).
- A sticker system will also be in place to help members identify and respect the choices of those members who are vaccinated and want hugs and those members desiring to stay socially distanced.
- Red –indicates your desire to stay socially distanced
- Yellow –indicates that you are open to a “fist or elbow bump”
- Green –indicates that you are vaccinated, and hugs are welcomed
We encourage all to honor and commit to these community agreements. We will not police these agreements and ask that our members please not police others.
Additional preparations are outlined below.
In preparing for July 18th, we established two critical teams:
- Health protocols, led by Aimee Calleja
- Facility renovations, led by Francesca Fazzolari
With her health background, Aimee researched and recommended a vendor for us to purchase an air purification system. This system by Activepure was designed by NASA and represents state of the art technology. The system will be in place prior to our re-opening.
With the help of a talented designer, Francesca oversaw the upgraded lighting, painting, carpeting, chairs and tiling. Rev. Mindy Tucker oversaw much of the initial upgrades along with the purchase and installation of the first of three new HVAC systems. We showed pictures of these upgrades at our June 27th town meeting and encourage members to view them on our Facebook page.
Of course, all major purchases were reviewed and approved by the board.
We also acknowledge and applaud Unity of Wilmington members along with our minsters, Rev. Nickie Golden and Rev. Mindy Tucker for being ahead of so many churches in providing ongoing on-line services, even well before the pandemic. Across the country, only 2% of places of worship were actively providing on-line services. So, a special thank you to all those who were responsible for providing any on-line support for our community.
In closing, we ask that all members respect the choices of others. Also, any agreements are subject to change based on emerging information.
If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact me at mdmcneil@bladen.k12.nc.us.
Warmest regards,
Myron D. McNeil
Unity of Wilmington Board President