Live Update to Residents-September 8, 2020
Live updates to residents on our in-house TV970 keep us informed and connected on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. Today’s update featured John Burns, President and CEO; Jessica Corbitt, Manager Cultural Arts; Anita Adkins, Development Officer-Strategic Gifts & Special Projects; and Lynn McClintock, Director Pastoral Care.
The following updates were shared during the live briefing on TV970.
John Burns
COVID-19 Updates
Last week, we tested 132 residents and 168 staff in Parsons Health Center. All the results from that testing came back negative. We will continue testing this week. We closed the COVID-19 positive unit on Friday after the last resident returned to her home in Parsons Health Center. The unit is still operational. We will reopen it if we need it, but thankfully we do not need it right now.
One employee continues to recover in quarantine. At any given time, there are a few employees who have shown symptoms and are out awaiting test results, but no one has tested positive in recent weeks.
Thanks to these encouraging results, we are submitting the application to the Virginia Department of Health to begin the multi-phased process of reopening Parsons Health Center. This is a long process that depends on continuing to have no cases of COVID-19 in Parsons Health Center.
Thank you for all you are doing to stay safe and healthy. It is important that we continue to follow the same guidelines. Wear your mask correctly, covering your nose. Stay six feet away from others wherever you go. Wash your hands and use hand sanitizer. Stay home if you do not feel well.
Jessica Corbitt
Performing Arts Update
Westminster Canterbury is using its resources to bring arts not only to those in our community but into the greater Richmond community as well. Our Sara Belle November Theater is already well known to local and touring performers as a beautiful performance space. During the pandemic, we are also building a reputation for having advanced and capable technology for streaming. We also have a wonderful group of skilled technicians that make all of this a reality in the virtual world.
We are partnering with the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance (RPAA) on their Legends Livestream series. Three one-hour concerts are airing live from our theater on YouTube and TV970. These are available exclusively to our residents and to patrons of RPAA. Please watch the live performance this Friday featuring Felicia Curry and pianist Anthony Smith. The beauty is that all of us are able to watch the performance together as one Richmond community!
In addition to this partnership, we will also livestream for our residents pianist Michelle Huang, the Richmond Symphony Fall Masterworks concerts and Mike Davidson and the Latin Jazz Messengers as part of our Fall into the Arts series.
If you prefer in person concerts, you can join us outside. We will meet in our beautiful gardens for performances by RVA Baroque, Virginia Opera and more! Next week, we will have our first Movie on the Ellipse with a showing of Apollo 13.
For many performers, our outdoor concert series is the first time they have been able to play for a live audience since COVID-19 reached our region. It is a special moment for both the performers and the audience!
If you have any questions, please call Jessica at ext. 6695.
Anita Adkins
Foundation Update
We are so grateful for your support that allows us to feed the hearts and souls of both our performing arts lovers and those who make a career out of the arts. This has certainly been a time of uncertainty for them and for us, but we are so happy we can continue to get together and engage in performances in this way. Thank you to Jessica Corbitt and her team for thinking creatively and finding ways to keep this going.
Some of you may know that since our Sara Belle November Theater opened back in 2006, 100% of the performance fees for shows in the theater have been paid for by generous donors to Westminster Canterbury Foundation. Ten named performing arts endowments were created with gifts of $100,000 or more. Many people have sponsored individual performances or given to general endowments that keep this programming going year after year.
When we pivoted in March and rescheduled many of our performances, we have been able to use these resources for streaming and outdoor performances. Thank you for your support that makes that possible!
Thank you for the many ways you continue to support Westminster Canterbury Foundation. From your gifts for the Fellowship Program to our W·E·A·V·E Program for employees, the Spiritual Center and many other areas that need your support, you make a big difference in our community.
If you have any questions about programs you can help through the Foundation, please call Anita at ext. 6202.
Lynn McClintock
Pastoral Care Updates
Please join us for Worship on TV970 on Thursday, September 10, at 10:30 a.m. Rev. Deacon Logan Augustine will be preaching, Rev. Jenny te Velde will assist and Sally Maynard will play the piano.
The Spiritual Center will be open to residents on Monday, September 28, at 12:30 p.m. Pastoral Care staff will rotate being present for the first week of the opening to answer questions. There will be a few times in the beginning of October when the sanctuary will be closed briefly for the taping of segments for the Service of Dedication and for a few equipment installments. The Service of Dedication will be prerecorded and shown on TV970 in October. The date is to be determined.
Prayer for Workers
Loving, Working God,
At this time we ask your special blessing on all people who labor, either for pay or as volunteers, in jobs or at school, in the workplace or at home, in the U.S. and around the world.
We especially pray for your blessings on workers who do not have jobs and for those whose inadequate pay does not allow them to live the full life you intend for each of us.
Creator God, help us to build a new world in the midst of the old.
A world where all workers are valued.
A world where those who clean houses are also able to buy houses to live in.
A world where those who grow food can also afford to eat their fill.
A world where those who serve and care for others are, themselves, also served and cared for.
We pray for the coming of a world where all workers everywhere share in the abundance that you have given us.
We ask these things knowing that you give us the courage and strength to live out our faith in the workplace and the marketplace, as well as in the sanctuary.
Amen.