Dear FUUSN community,
Welcome to our new church year! It’s been good to see so many at our Sunday worship services and in our children’s RE program.
Over the summer, the Operations Council, Board of Trustees, and FUUSN staff have continued to monitor the Covid-19 metrics and the recommendations of public health officials. The community risk level in Newton and throughout Massachusetts remains low even with the increased incidence of Covid infections over the last couple of months. Many have protection against Covid due to vaccination, previous infection, or both. This immunity, combined with the availability of test and treatments has greatly reduced the risk of severe illness and hospitalization.
Thus, we feel it is best to continue our current policy of optional masking in the Sanctuary and at all FUUSN events. Masks will, however, continue to be required for those seated in the last 6 rows on both sides of the Sanctuary. We recognize that different people will make different masking decisions and we ask that you respect individual choices. Sunday services will continue to be streamed over zoom. We ask that if you test positive for Covid after attending a FUUSN event, you notify those with whom you had close contact. We also hope that parents will let Devin know if their child tests positive after attending an RE program.
As a reminder about the safety of our indoor spaces, over the summer of 2021, before beginning to gather for in-person services, we improved the ventilation systems in all our spaces adding MERV-13 air filters and ionizing and ultraviolet systems to kill airborne viruses, and increased air exchanges so that our building meets the standards established for public school buildings. For more information on these changes, see our HVAC Systems page.
We will continue to monitor Covid metrics and guidance from public health officials and adjust our policy if needed. We will send all updates via e-mail and Facebook. All information will be posted on FUUSN’s website. Please feel to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.
Parisa Parsa, Interim Minister
RoseAnn Murray, on behalf of the Board of Trustees
Susan Bartlett, on behalf of the Operations Council