Monday, 22nd of November, 2021
Dear Sangha
South Australian borders open this week after a long period of closures and restrictions due to COVID-19. These changes lead us to ask questions about how best to proceed as a group.
As a sangha, we are interdependent upon each other to maintain dharma practice, and the environment for our ongoing safety and wellbeing. We believe that vaccination has a key role to play in this, both as individuals and as a group.
At this stage, from Tuesday the 23rd of November, sitting in person with AZG will be open to people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
For those who are not vaccinated or preferring not to attend in person events, we are establishing a regular online sitting practice. We’ve had great success stepping into the world of online sangha in the last eighteen months and look forward to offering this option to you on a regular basis. We will update you soon on details.
If you have a medical exemption from the vaccine, please contact us.
To help us with this policy, we ask that you send evidence of your vaccination status to Jak Baddams at jak.baddams@gmail.com or Ros Schmidtke at ros.schmidtke91@gmail.com. Questions and concerns can also be raised with Jak and Ros as the welfare officers.
It’s also possible for you to bring evidence of vaccination to the Hutt Street Zendo instead of emailing, as any zendo leader can cite your evidence, and you will only need to show us once. Please arrive ten minutes early so we can confirm your status and be able to start on time. If you are still setting up your myGov record, the post vaccine paper record is fine to bring.
We have a QR code in place for checking in, and hand sanitizer is provided. We’ll continue to ask our sangha to wear masks while in the zendo for the foreseeable future, and we’ll update the sangha of our ongoing precautions as the SA COVID situation develops.
Also, we ask that if you have any presenting cold or flu symptoms to please stay home and practice with us online until you are well.
We look forward to sitting with you when we see you next.
Adelaide Zen Group Committee