Dear People of St. James’,
I know that it is not often that you receive a letter in the mail from our office, but, at this time, the St. James’ Vestry and I wanted to ensure that the whole community is aware of the ways we are adapting to this unprecedented time in our church’s life together. If you haven’t received a letter in the mail yet, we may need to update your address.
We are expecting to receive diocesan approval for our in-person, regathering plan this week, and we will begin to implement it as the health conditions of our community allow. This plan is the result of the Phase II Task Force’s hard work, analysis of the congregational surveys, and deliberation in consultation with the Vestry Administration Committee, the Liturgy Committee, and the Vestry. Virtual gatherings will continue, along with essential in-person work, such as Neighbor 2 Neighbor’s food and diaper packing and delivery and very small groups coming together very occasionally to record for worship.
Our Austin community seems to be rapidly headed toward Stage 5 (red zone), as defined by Austin Public Health, with its associated health risk markers. During Stage 5, we are anticipating another period of gathering only virtually in another effort to flatten the curve before school starts. Because of the risks involved in singing together, we are increasing our virtual choir efforts in order to keep our musicians safe. At a certain point, we will do some coordinated small group gatherings, outdoors, masked, and distanced, but I believe we are looking for a return to Stage 3 before we have larger (less than 50) groups gathering indoors on campus, masked and distanced with a variety of other precautions.
As you can imagine, this has some staffing implications for our church community. As rector, I am charged with the supervision of staff, but I called together a personnel committee to take a clear-eyed look at our staffing needs as we move into this still hazy future. We determined that our nursery and music needs have changed in significant ways, and so we set out to create a plan to best honor the work of loved staff members, while restructuring the staff for the future.
Since March 13, when we moved to virtual gathering, we have been paying the four members of our nursery staff as normal. This month, based on our expectations of the future and in hopes of setting them up for the best possible financial situation, we will furlough our nursery staff, Terra Estep, Valera Giarratano, Richelle Easley, and Imane Houdaifa, until the end of 2020. Our hope is to bring them back when it is possible to operate a nursery program again.
COVID-19 has dramatically changed how we gather and do music and keep the community singing, and I believe that St. James’ has been at the forefront of the diocese in creative thinking about how to do this in this time. Research indicates that it will not be safe to gather large choirs in person, even distanced, for a significant period of time. This is not just a 2020 problem. And so, we, like many churches, are having to shift to small ensemble work, vibrant instrumentals and solos/duets, and virtual choirs, and, as a result, music staffing is changing.
For us at St. James’, that means that we need to honor the good work that Choir Director Helen Miers has done with us and on our behalf over the last several years as she leaves our staff. Helen came to us in a time of great need and limited resources during The Rev. Lisa Saunders’ tenure as rector, and she has diligently served the St. James’ 10:15 community with generosity, sharing her amazing musical gifts and connections with many. And so, you can imagine what a difficult decision this was for me and the Vestry, and how much we want honor her service even in this parting. In order to ease the transition, we will continue to pay her salary through September, even though she will not have responsibilities during this time. We also want to thank Helen by performing a piece in her honor and praying over her in our worship together online. More information on the timing of that will be forthcoming. If you would like to offer a note of thanks or share a picture of a special musical moment during our time together, please send those to office@stjamesaustin.org or 1941 Webberville, Austin, TX 78721, in the next couple of weeks. We will plan to gather our choirs on occasion by Zoom/phone in order keep people involved in worship as the ways we offer praise shift.
Dear people of St. James’, these are strange and difficult times, and your Vestry and I are here for you if you have questions or concerns. Thank you for the way you are staying connected to God and to your neighbor, and to each other. Thank you for your compassion, your strength, and resilience. We walk by faith.
The peace of God be always with you,
The Rev. Eileen O’Brien, Rector
Natalie Adelaja, Senior Warden
John Butler, Junior Warden
