Lethbridge Mennonite Church's response

Pandemic plan

Introduction

Many health care experts say that a pandemic (or another major emergency) is inevitable. The church has a role in planning and responding, on the basis of our faith, our vision and mission.

Mennonite Church Canada has developed web resources (https://www.mennonitechurch.ca/outbreakresources) for church leaders and congregations to learn about and prepare for a potential pandemic, and how to minister to members and surrounding communities in the event of a pandemic, a major disaster or health emergency.

The pastor and two church members (a nurse and a manager) were appointed in June 2009 to look at how our congregation could be educated about pandemic preparedness and in particular examine some possible responses to community, congregational and individual needs when a pandemic or other emergency arises.

Our group met approximately every six weeks. We reviewed documents available through Mennonite Church Canada and other websites. We also contacted our local health authorities and city emergency planning office to find out about our local pandemic preparedness contact person and plans.

This plan summarizes our discussions and recommendations to Church Council and congregation.

How would our congregation be impacted in the event of a pandemic, a major disaster or health emergency?

Regular church activities (worship, communion, pastoral care, visitations, care groups, other gatherings) may be affected and modified by a health emergency or a major disaster
Many of the people who attend our church are seniors, persons with disabilities, persons with no immediate close families, and could possibly be quite isolated in the event of a health emergency or a major disaster.
Our church and our members are involved with community groups, such as the Soup Kitchen, the Thrift Store… that may be asked to increase or modify their volunteer work in the event of a health emergency or a major disaster
Several church members are professionally involved working with persons who may be at higher risk during times of a health emergency or a major disaster (homeless people, persons with developmental disabilities).

Our strengths:

Lethbridge Mennonite Church is already in a good position to respond to a health emergency or a major disaster. Rather then creating new structures and procedures, we should build on existing ones.

We have communication tools, such as a church directory updated on a yearly basis, and the prayer chain.
We have other effective ways of communicating and supporting each other: church council, women’s fellowship; men’s breakfast, Bible study group.
Church members are divided into 3 serving groups with leaders who are able to organize the groups.
Our deacons have a list of church members, and are trying to visit each of us, at least once a year.
We already have cleaning policies and procedures (for use of kitchen and church cleanliness)
We have a church website (that could be used to post information, updates, scriptures and hymns in addition to a weekly sermon).
We have mailboxes for everyone at church.
Many members in the church have special gifts that could be accessed in case of emergency (such as retired health professionals, people with a gift of hospitality, former pastors who could assist with additional pastoral care)
We are already involved in community support, through the soup kitchen, the MCC thrift store, our contacts with other community organizations
Our pastor has contacts with other church leaders in Lethbridge, as well as other Mennonite leaders in Alberta (through Mennonite Church Alberta)
Many church members have links with members from other congregations in Lethbridge and surrounding communities.
Our church has started to develop contacts with the church neighbourhood.

Recommendations to the congregation:

Preparing for a health emergency or a natural disaster includes education and prevention, an immediate response plan, and a plan for long-term support to those affected by the event.

It will be important to be ready, while at the same time not scare or overwhelm people.

Building on existing strengths, we are making the following recommendations:

Recommendation	Time-line	Comments
Introduce the topic of pandemic preparation to church council and congregation	Fall 2009	Could include a sermon on biblical basis for helping others in times of need and the theological basis for pandemic preparation Could include the study of: Beyond our Fears, a resource published by Mennonite Publishing Network
Provide pandemic preparation information to congregation	Fall - Winter 2009	Mennonite Church Canada, Canadian Red Cross, Health Canada, Chinook Health… have fact sheets, posters, pamphlets that are ready to be used. The pandemic preparedness group could take the lead in doing this. We could also have an information session for the church facilitated by the pandemic preparedness group. Need to make sure that the information is available also to those with language or other barriers. Need to consider how the church can support those with limited resources, as they consider assembling an emergency kit.
Inform local Emergency Preparedness Group about our plans and be in touch with them.	August 2009	The committee has contacted several persons in Chinook Health. They are supportive of our initiative. We are now on their planning and mailing list.
Review policies and procedures on church cleanliness and safety	Fall 2009	Look at availability of gloves, tissue, alcohol pumps… Proper washing of dishes and food preparation.
Have a master document of all emergency preparedness documents	August 2009 - ongoing	The pastor has started filing things in a binder that is kept in pastor’s office.
Update / upgrade contact lists, to include cell-phone numbers and e-mail addresses	Fall – Winter 2009	The pastor keeps updates on mailing addresses in her church directory. It may help to get additional information on how to contact people, in case the main phone lines don’t work any more. • The list could be kept in a locked cabinet, to protect people’s privacy.
Make and maintain a list of more vulnerable persons in the church (people without immediate families, with disabilities, without transportation…) who may require additional support from church in case of emergency	Fall – Winter 2009	Need to ensure that there is consent from people to be on such a list. Need to decide on whose responsibility it would be to maintain such a list.
Make and maintain a list of church members with special gifts / resources who could be accessed if a special need arises	Fall –Winter 2009	Need to ensure that there is consent from people to be on such a list. Need to decide on whose responsibility it would be to maintain such a list.
Review terms of reference for existing church groups (such as deacons, church council, serving groups…) and possibly add tasks that may occur in times of emergency	Fall – Winter 2009	Church Council to take the lead
Discuss how church would function in case of a local emergency: staffing issues, changes in worship…	Fall – Winter 2009	Church Council to take the lead
Coordination of future pandemic preparedness activities: Council could appoint a specific group to continue the work, or ask the existing group to carry on.	Fall – Winter 2009	Church Council to take the lead

Conclusion

Although not an immediate or urgent concern, we recommend that Church Council encourages our congregation to start preparing and planning for a pandemic or another major disaster.

Respectfully submitted,
The Committee
August 2009

Emergency planning response

Lethbridge Mennonite Church - Emergency planning response

In response to the plan submitted to Church Council and approved by the Congregation during its Annual Meeting in January 2010, the Pandemic Planning Committee met every month or two, opened our meetings with a devotion related to pandemic planning and with prayer, and addressed the recommendations as follows.

Recommendation Action Introduce the topic of pandemic preparation to church council and congregation	The pastor preached one sermon on Pandemic Planning We had one children’s story on Pandemic Planning during worship time All Sunday School Classes (adult and youth) studied “Beyond our Fear – Following Jesus in Times of Crisis” in January-February 2010 (Additional Feed-back on “Beyond our Fears” is presented in a separate document.)
Provide pandemic preparation information to congregation	We ordered emergency preparedness guides from “Public Safety Canada” and distributed them in church mailboxes. We also ordered more specialized guides, such as an emergency preparedness guide for people with disabilities / special needs for deacons and others interested.
Inform local Emergency Preparedness Group about our plans and be in touch with them.	We indicated to local health authorities and city planners that our congregation and its members would be willing to participate in community initiatives in times of emergency.
Review policies and procedures on church cleanliness and safety	We ordered sanitizer pumps and gloves for the church; We ordered posters on proper washing of hands that were posted in our bathrooms; We researched janitorial duty checklists (websites, other local churches), and are in the process of revising our own janitorial duty check-list. We are aware that any additional duty for the janitor will result in increased costs (time and resources) Our church had worked with public health officers in the past to ensure that food handling and cleaning dishes were done according to public safety procedures.)
Have a master document of all emergency preparedness documents	The pastor has a binder with all the information in her office.
Update / upgrade contact lists, to include cell-phone numbers and e-mail addresses	Our church updates the official directory once a year in the Spring. The pastor keeps new updates on mailing addresses in her church directory. For this year’s update, we gave people a choice to indicate whether they wanted the church to keep emergency information on file. We consulted with other local churches to find out what they were doing, and decided to offer the following: People who were willing to give contact information would be contacted by deacons They could indicate two emergency contacts (preferably one family member and one friend, with phone numbers for each of them) They could also indicate a particular need or concern they may have. The list will be kept in a locked cabinet, to protect people’s privacy.
Review terms of reference for existing church groups (such as deacons, church council, serving groups…) and possibly add tasks that may occur in times of emergency	We did not make any changes to terms of reference.
Make and maintain a list of more vulnerable persons in the church (people without immediate families, with disabilities, without transportation…) who may require additional support from church in case of emergency	The committee felt that such a list would be very difficult to create and to maintain. We were also concerned about privacy issues. Rather, as a result of the “Beyond our Fears” material, we decided to focus on the need to care for our church neighbours on an on-going basis. During a church retreat, we mapped church households on a city and a regional map. We also organized a progressive supper “Who is your church neighbour?” where church members who lived in the same neighbourhoods were encouraged to visit each other’s homes and learn to know each other better (See additional material). About 40 percent of the households in the church participated in the event, and more households anticipate meeting privately at a later date, using the same format.
Make and maintain a list of church members with special gifts / resources who could be accessed if a special need arises	The committee felt that such a list would be very difficult to create and to maintain. We were also concerned about privacy issues. Our congregation is small enough that members know each other and each other’s special gifts.
Discuss how church would function in case of a local emergency: staffing issues, changes in worship…	In addition to having printed versions of the sermon available on Sunday mornings, the sermons are also recorded and made available through the church website.
Coordination of future pandemic preparedness activities: Council could appoint a specific group to continue the work, or ask the existing group to carry on.	The pandemic planning committee is looking at dismantling, once all the initial tasks have been achieved, and after ensuring that on-going activities will be taken on by other church entities (such as the maintenance committee, the deacons and Church Council.)

Pandemic Planning Committee
Lethbridge Mennonite Church
May 2010

Feedback of Beyond our Fears Sunday school sessions

Lethbridge Mennonite Church - Beyond our Fears Sunday school sessions

As part of our Pandemic Plan, in January-February 2010, all Sunday School classes took a four-week break of their normal curriculum to study “Beyond our Fears – Following Jesus in Times of Crisis”.

The lessons came at a very appropriate time, since Lethbridge had had an outbreak of H1N1 a few weeks prior to the study time, and since the Haiti earthquake had just happened. In addition, we recently had a late winter storm, where most of Lethbridge was without power for several hours.

Everyone (teachers and students) had very positive feed-back on the material; they felt that the material presented was very relevant. The suggestions were easy to use, and there were enough options to adapt to a variety of settings. We had approximately 50 minutes for each class, but could have easily doubled that time, in order to cover all the material presented.

We had three classes: a children and youth class, and two adult classes. We chose to have one consistent teacher for each of the classes throughout the four sessions. Participants were encouraged to stay with the same teacher for all four sessions. Thoughts compiled by Fred Unruh, one of the two adult teachers, are presented at the end of this document.

Because several of our church members have worked with or have strong links with emergency and relief organizations (Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Disaster Service, Mennonite Economic Development Associates), classes also heard first hand stories from people who have experienced disaster and/or were involved in post-emergency support.

All classes met at the beginning of the sessions for a joint opening. We used material presented in the last two chapters of Beyond our Fears – Guide for leaders for the opening session.

Teachers consulted with each other in preparation of the classes, and shared thoughts after each of the lessons.

Sunday School attendance was higher than usual for this four-weeks series, and it was great to have the youth discussing the same material as adults.

Participants felt that the material was useful both for emergency preparedness, as for everyday response to health and other needs of church members.

Participants agreed that our connection to many local organizations, as well as to MCC, MEDA, MDS will be a great help in case of local or international emergencies.

As a follow-up of the study, two specific suggestions were made:

Offering the option of having emergency contact information on file for church members. (This may be particularly useful for people who don’t have close family in Lethbridge, and could include neighbours, next of kin, and/or relatives). We have implemented this recommendation, while updating our church directory
“Know your neighbour” initiative. In case of emergency / natural disaster, normal communication channels, such as telephone, internet, driving could be disrupted. If church members knew who lives in their neighbourhoods, they could at least walk to each other’s house. Two practical suggestions on how to move forward with that idea are to map the church people on a City and a Regional map, and to organize a “Guess who is your neighbour” supper. Both of these recommendations were implemented.

Feed-back from Fred Unruh, one of the two adult teachers:

The lessons and supporting resources were well written, with very good teaching guides.
The stories were very inspiring.
We had lively interaction, including from guests.
Several times people reminded us that caring for our neighbours is just as important as caring for ourselves.We noted there is a wide disparity in our culture with its focus on extreme individualism and self interest, and the Christian ethic of caring for our neighbours as much as ourselves. We may not find much support from popular culture to help our neighbours.
Appreciation was expressed for nurses and caregiver in our congregation who help us understand health, and care, and faith issues in a crisis.
We were reminded that we may need to depend on our neighbours in a crisis, and we should become good friends with them now.
Some people were somewhat disappointed in what they learned about themselves.
We affirmed that there are many, many good people doing good things in a crisis, who may not have any faith connections. We want to affirm them and stand with them as people of faith.
In the H1N1 crisis last Fall we encountered some people who did not use common sense or informed action. That will be a part of any crisis experience.
Personal experiences (ourselves, our friends) during the H1N1 crisis offered important perspectives to this study.
We may benefit from more “practical coaching” on what to do in a crisis, as an expression of helping each other cope with fears and danger.
The worship rituals were an important part of this study unit, as they affirmed faith in God’s care and supporting presence.
[My group didn’t do much in discussing how we would organize to respond in a crisis. One important expression reminded us that in a severe crisis like the earthquake in Haiti, all infrastructure is immobilized, and “we will be on our own”.]

Progressive Supper Template

Guess who is your church neighbor?

In order to help church members discover who lives closest to their homes (within walking distance), we organized a progressive supper where groups of approximately 8 people spent an evening visiting each other’s homes and learning to know each other better.

The last two pages have templates for the initial invitation and the final plan.

Download the Progressive Supper Template - PDF or DOC.