Like you, Buffalo Friends Meeting has been paying close attention to the news about COVID-19 (coronavirus) and talking at length about its impact on our weekly First Day Worship on Sundays. Given the recommendations from the CDC and other health officials, many local churches and houses of worship have decided to cancel their services. We too have decided to cancel this Sunday’s (March 15th) in-person Meeting for Worship.

Instead of meeting in person, we will meet for an online Meeting for Worship via Zoom starting at 10:30 AM. Unprogrammed worship will take place for the first 40 minutes. After that we will have a 20-minute period to discuss the query, “How do we adapt to this temporary situation?” One of the things we’ll discuss is how New York Yearly Meeting, of which we are a member, is creating pods of communities to retain the connections that we cherish as a faith group.

Please note that the Network of Religious Communities has announced that due to COVID-19, all public meetings in the building are suspended as of Monday, March 16th until further notice. This means we will be meeting via Zoom each First Day (Sunday) for the foreseeable future.

Connection information to the meeting was included in an email announcements sent on Friday evening. If you did not receive this announcement but would like to participate, please use this form and we will contact you with our meeting guidelines and the technical details needed to connect.

We leave you with these thoughts from Rabbi Rav Yosef Kanefsky of B'nai David-Judea Congregation in Los Angeles:

One of the brand new terms that has entered our daily conversation is “social distancing.” It is shorthand for the practical physical precautions that we all need to and must take in order to protect ourselves and others. I'd humbly suggest though, that we use the term itself sparingly, if at all. Language is a powerful shaper of thinking. And the very last thing we need right now, is a mindset of mutual distancing.
We actually need to be thinking in the exact opposite way. Every hand that we don't shake must become a phone call that we place. Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern. Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise. It is obvious that “distancing,” if misplaced or misunderstood, will take its toll not only upon our community's strength and resiliency, but upon the very integrity and meaning of our spiritual commitment. Let's stay safe. And let's draw one another closer in a way that we've never done before."