Trinity Church's Response to COVID-19

Update 4/16/20:
Montpelier Meal Sites and Status
 
Monday 11:30 – 12:15
Bethany Church
115 Main Street 
Community Lunch Brown Bag
 
Tuesday 11:30 – 12:15
Trinity United Methodist Church 
137 Main Street
Community Meal Brown Bag
 
Wednesday 11:30 – 12:15
Christ Church
64 State Street
Community Lunch Brown Bag
 
Thursday 11:30 – 12:15
Trinity United Methodist Church 
137 Main Street
Community Meal Brown Bag
 
Friday No Community Meal at this writing 4.3.2020
St Augustine Parish Church Closed

Shift Meals from Skinny Pancake https://skinnypancake.com/shiftmeals/
Friday 12 – 12:15 pm pick up
Outside of Bethany Church (115 Main St)
One-time Sign-Up required (Your name & a choice between vegetarian or meat) (by Thursday morning)  
 
Feast To Go https://www.montpelier-vt.org/309/FEAST-Meals-Program
Tuesday and Friday 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Montpelier Senior Activity Center Front Court Yard by donation for 60+
Must Complete a Community Nutritional Survey
$7 for under 60
58 Barre Street
802-223-2518 General


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Update 3/24/20:

• New Food Pantry Hours
  • Tuesday: 10am-noon 
  • Thursday: 10am-noon
  • Saturday: 10am-noon

     * Pre-packed boxes at the door: fresh food and frozen meat as available.

Update 3/21/20:

• To better manage our storage space with reduced number of volunteers, we are unable to accept donations through Thrift Store Donation Bin. Thank you for your understanding.

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Update 3/18/20:

• As responsible Christians, Trinity United Methodist Church encourages our members and friends to take the practice of social distancing seriously, and our building will be CLOSED beginning this SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020, and remain closed until further notice.
• The TRINITY COMMUNITY THRIFT STORE will be CLOSED until further notice. 
• The Tuesday WARMING SHELTER will join the community effort to concentrate its location at The Another Way Community Center (125 Barre St., Montpelier, VT) each evening between 5-8 pm. Each church/group will be bringing the food to them for the assigned evening.
• The MONTPELIER FOOD PANTRY will remain open to serve our community. However, the customers will be served at the back door of the church, instead of entering the basement. Only a few volunteers will be allowed to be in the building.
• As of now, we will continue to provide our Thursday's COMMUNITY LUNCH in the form of bagged lunch from our rear entrance.
• For OTHER GROUPS who use our building regularly (Al-Anon, Gospel Choir, Fiddlers' Group, Dance Group, CVRAN), we are in conversation to be consistent with our intent to be cautious as much as possible during this time.
• All IN-PERSON GATHERINGS will transition into other creative ways to continue to serve its purposes, including: Sunday worship, Bible study sessions, Prayer Shawl Ministry & the “Learn-to-Knit” group, Confirmation classes
• The CHURCH OFFICE will remain being available to respond to your phone calls and emails during our normal hours (Tues-Thurs 10am-2pm; Fri 10am-1pm) if you may have any questions.

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Update 3/13/20:

• We will continue to worship in the sanctuary until otherwise noted. Please try to leave some space between others as you sit in your pews. For precautionary effort, this Sunday, we won’t do the Passing of the Peace, Fellowship Hour after church, and passing around the Prayer booklets. We will do the offertory and sharing of joys and concerns as usual, but we will be mindful of minimizing the contact of the microphone and the offering plates during those times.
• If you are not feeling well, you are welcome to stay at home and worship at home. We are exploring how to live stream Sunday’s worship service via Youtube. (I am hoping to send out the link sometime tomorrow and a bulletin that you can download to follow along)
• One of the ways to offer our gifts to God is through online giving. Go to this link where you can set up to give your offering electronically. When you stay at home or even if you worship at church, you can easily use the Give Plus Mobile App, which can be found in the app store. If you want to see how it works, Kathy Reed can show you. 
• This week, I asked Mark Crane, Rima Carlson, and Judy Murphy to be the Health Advisory Group for TUMC to provide advice that would be helpful for us to make wise decisions and policies regarding church building usage. We are mindful of all the ministries that are involving those among us who are vulnerable, and we will do our best to seek the best practice to both protect and provide. We are working together with other churches and the city staff in Montpelier. 
• The pastoral care ministry will be somewhat limited for precautionary reasons due to the nature of visitation is usually with the physically vulnerable persons. However, this doesn’t mean that it seizes. Please know that I am only a phone call/text/email away for a conversation. (6179819825 / yktaurus@gmail.com)
• For the upcoming small groups, we will make the decision on a day to day base.

As this is an evolving situation, I will stay in touch with our leadership and continue to provide updates to you all. 

Let us be in prayer for each other-
especially for those who are ill and their families, 
those who are in the medical fields and caregivers, 
those who will experience isolation and miss the sense of community and belonging,
those small local businesses, restaurants, artists, and speakers who will be financially affected the most, 
those who will experience racial discrimination, 
and those who won’t be able to afford to work from home. 
Let us pray for peace in our hearts, 
and more love to one another in this anxious time. 

In Christ’s love,
Yunki

p.s. When you are done reading this, how about washing your hands (while praying the Lord’s Prayer)? :)