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June 09, 2020
Greetings from the office of Prairie to Pine Regional Council. This week the Government of Ontario announced re-opening into phase 2 for much of the Province and included some specific permissions for worshiping communities in all locations. Things continue in phase 2 here in Manitoba.
On May 13, 2020 there was an opportunity for members of Community of Faith and Ministry Personnel from the three regions (Northern Spirit, Living Skies and Prairie to Pine) to attend a ZOOM gathering to discuss re-opening of buildings for worship and/or other activities /tenants or user groups. The ZOOM call that evening was based on resources that we had at that time and the health authority restrictions and gathering numbers at that time. Some of you were unable to access the ZOOM meeting because we exceeded the maximum number.
Since that date, we also now have a few more resources for places of worship from governments and health authorities in various provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan), from various Regional Councils across the country and from our Ecumenical partners (Evangelical Lutheran Church Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Synod) some of which were share in an email to active ministry personnel and pastoral charge supervisors on June 1st, 2020 (Resources available here)
In addition to those resources two more have become available this week through the Living Skies Regional Council website:
A Discernment process:
https://livingskiesrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DiscerningRe-openingTogether-Living-SkiesRC-UCC.pdf
A template for writing your Community of Faith re-opening plan is available here.
We are awaiting the possibility of a resource for places of worship from the government and/or health authority of the province of Manitoba .
The Prairie to Pine Regional Council through its Executive Minister Shannon McCarthy (SMcCarthy@united-church.ca) or one of the Co-Chairs of the Regional Council, Lori Stewart (Loristewart@hagerman.ca) are open to hearing if there are still resources that your communities of faith would find helpful as you make decisions about any aspect of re-engaging in buildings.
We expect that It will be a while before the Province of Ontario reaches a stage where re-opening of places of worship for larger groups is anticipated.
Given these new resources we wanted to provide another opportunity for members from governing bodies and Ministry Personnel from Prairie to Pine Regional Council to gather together in a ZOOM meeting to discuss any matters related to making decisions and developing plans for re-opening of buildings on Wednesday evening, June 10, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for the connection information for this meeting. For those joining by phone, here is the meeting information.
Peace to you all…..
Judy Hare, Pastoral Relations Minister,
Prairie to Pine Regional Council
jhare@united-church.ca
204-421-8151
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