January 8, 2022
Dear Highland East Stake Members
After careful consideration of the current record-setting COVID trends, extremely contagious nature of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, guidance from healthcare leaders, current strain on healthcare resources, and communication yesterday from the Utah Area Presidency and our area seventy, we are prompted to make changes to our church meeting schedules for the next three weeks (January 9, 16, 23). Stake leaders will reassess the situation and trends to determine the appropriate approach for subsequent Sundays. We are hopeful that the current spike in cases and increase in hospitalization will be temporary and that our January 30, 2022 5th Sunday lesson will be available in person, as the adults and youth are each meeting in groups under the direction of ward council.
- Sacrament Meeting: We want members to be particularly comfortable viewing from home for the next three weeks, especially those who are concerned, ill, recently exposed, elderly or those with underlying conditions. As directed yesterday by the Utah Area Presidency, we lovingly “encourage members to review and prayerfully consider the August 12, 2021 message from the First Presidency regarding wearing face masks and getting vaccinated.” According to Utah’s coronavirus-dashboard, unvaccinated individuals are 5.4x more likely to be hospitalized and 6.9x more likely to die from COVID-19. Members are able to administer and partake of the sacrament at home during this time. Please reach out to ministering brothers or elders quorum leaders for priesthood ordinance assistance if needed.
- Second hour: All in-person classes will be discontinued and will be online.
- Primary: No classes will be held unless teachers and primary presidencies make other arrangements to hold classes online. Combined primary sharing-time or music-time may be arranged by primary leaders.
- Elders Quorum/Relief Society: Meetings will be online only.
- Young Men/Young Women: Meetings will be online only – leaders may choose to combine classes.
- Sunday school: Meetings will be online only.
- Youth, Primary and Other Activities: While school classes and activities are being held, we don’t want to put our volunteer teachers and leaders at risk and we therefore temporarily suspend all in-person activities and encourage online activities whenever possible.
- Seeking Truth Devotional (January 9, Jared Halverson – Finding Faith in an Age of Doubt): As with Sacrament Meeting, members should feel comfortable attending online; those attending in-person are urged to wear masks and physically distance. The link to this and all of our 6PM Seeking Truth Devotionals is available at HighlandUtahEastStake.org.
- Stake Women’s Conference (January 22nd): Will be rescheduled.
- Stake Youth Activity (January 12th): Will be rescheduled.
Twenty-five percent of our stake is over age 60. These wonderful members and many others with underlying health concerns, are called to serve in positions where physical distancing is difficult and some participants don’t or are unable to wear masks. These faithful members feel obligated to serve and often are put in situations that may put them at risk. It is our desire to mitigate these risks for a few weeks.
We are grateful that Omicron has proven to be less severe than previous variants and that preliminary data from other countries, such as South Africa, show a quick rise and fall in cases (6-8 weeks). Nonetheless, currently our local healthcare system is strained to provide employees, beds and COVID treatment. We are optimistic that the current spike will follow the pattern in other countries and will quickly subside but we need to be careful and protective in the interim.
We are all tired of COVID-19. It has been exhausting and challenging for many of us. Thank you for your understanding. As saints we delight in learning, loving and socializing together. Let us move forward in a prayer of faith, knowing that our Heavenly Father is mindful of our righteous desires to worship together. He will provide answers to our prayers, including that this pandemic will soon be contained and our families, neighbors and community can be safe.
We pray our Lord’s blessings upon each of you.
The Stake Presidency
Tyler Sheffield
Ron Davis
Rod Lisonbee
