03/13/2020
(See below for info regarding New Hope Day Shelter)
The leadership team of Origins Faith Community met Thursday night to gather facts and evaluate our position regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. In regard to this disease, we believe that most people have nothing to fear. For a large percentage of people catching the virus will amount to nothing more than minor cold/flu symptoms.
But we also know that there are those with underlying health issues or in certain age ranges who could be seriously affected by catching the virus. With that in mind, Origins Faith Community will be suspending our Sunday morning worship gathering for the next two weeks. We will evaluate this decision in the coming days and adjust if necessary.
We are making this decision out of a sense of respect and support for the community at large and want to partner with the numerous organizations and entities who are already making hard decisions in an effort to stem the rate of infection in our area. While Origins Sunday gatherings are not at the 250-person limit set by the governor, we are still a large gathering of people, many of whom fit in the documented “high-risk” categories. We simply want to do our part to limit risk. It is very apparent that one person who doesn’t get infected with this virus represents multiple other people who also don’t get infected and we think that is a good thing. In the meantime, we are actively looking for ways to support our neighborhood and those who may be in vulnerable situations because of this crisis.
Origins will continue to offer online faith options both on Sunday mornings and during the week to help the people of Origins stay connected and to offer a voice of hope to those in our community who may need it in this uncertain time.
We are also suspending some services that are currently offered at the New Hope Day Shelter and Meal Site. For the reasons mentioned above, effective Monday, March 16th, we will be closing the Day Shelter for an indefinite amount of time. We will however continue to serve easily transportable meals from the Meal Site location from 3:00-4:00 each weekday.
