Dear People of St. James’,
This week our community mourns with the individuals, families, and communities devastated by the mass shooting during the first mass of the school year at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. This tragedy comes on the heels of the shooting at Target here in Austin. Some of our own (the Malone family) lost dear ones in that horrific event, and the truth is that many groups and individuals are going about their lives with a heightened sense of vulnerability.
In light of all of this, a number of people have been asking me about some of the measures we have in place at St. James’ in case of emergencies. While I don’t want to post our whole emergency plan here, or anywhere online for that matter, you should know that we have such a plan and are always adapting it. You should also know that over the last couple of years, we have been hard at work consulting with security professionals and implementing some costly improvements to the safety of our campus including an electronic access system that allows us with the click of a button to lockdown all doors on campus and video cameras for monitoring/reporting. We recently submitted an application for a second security-related grant to help fund more trainings in first aid and mental health first aid (in English and Spanish).
The Vestry Administration Committee has been developing strategies that bring our liturgical ministers and staff into the work of being part of a security team to provide a coordinated response to medical, mental health, environmental emergencies (these three scenarios are the most likely), or incursions. Just last Saturday, we did a training for liturgical ministers, and we will be continuing those trainings as well as offering informational opportunities to the whole congregation in a variety of contexts throughout the fall and beyond. Some of you have also asked if there is a protocol in case ICE comes to campus, and the answer is yes. During the upcoming Parent Meeting (September 7, 12-1 pm in the Orange Building), we will include a bit of conversation with parents about our emergency plans.
If you have any kind of first responder training (EMT, nurse, doctor, mental health training, CPR, AED), please be sure that Aimee Estep, our parish administrator, is aware by emailing her at office@stjamesaustin.org.
I invite you to be attentive to these important conversations whenever they arise so that we can continue to be a community that cares for one another and seeks to do that dance between welcome and open doors and sanctuary and safety for the vulnerable.
Rev. Eileen
