Dear confreres,
May the Lord’s grace be with us.
I hope and pray that you and your communities are doing well. At this time of COVID-19 Pandemic, I would like to wish you the protection of God’s providence and inform you about the VSO response to the pandemic.
Beginning on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 the staff and I have been working remotely from our residences. We continue to serve the provinces, vice-provinces, and international missions in this new manner. The transition to a remote office with electronic documentation and filing took place several years ago. A few of our staff have been working remotely exclusively for several years.
Hence, the VSO adapted quickly to the new working situation. To add, The VSO continues to develop projects and seek funding for its current projects. Some of the provinces, vice-provinces, regions and international missions have open applications and projects with the VSO. I assure you that we are doing what we can to advance them. Also, the funding agencies continue to respond to our emails – they maintain services both in Europe and the United States. Some agencies, however, report delays in reviewing the grant submissions and sending funds to projects.
The VSO will be contacting our project managers in those sites where open projects are waiting for the transfer of funds. I welcome communication about how you are doing and how your projects are advancing. Because of COVID-19, the VSO understands that some of the important work may be delayed. Your country may or may not yet be dealing with the consequences of the pandemic. In actuality, conditions may change suddenly for you and your colleagues, resulting in delays. Confreres, if you run into a delay, please update the VSO about the impact on your project.
St. Vincent used to counsel the confreres about delays in projects, assuring them that a delay does not harm a project. If there is a delay then God will see it through. As a result, the success of the endeavor would be less dependent on our efforts than upon the work of God’s grace.
To close, we assure you that we will work to help you to advance your projects and may God’s grace bless our efforts during this pandemic.
Your confrere in St. Vincent,
Fr. Gregory J. Semeniuk, C.M.
Executive Director, VSO
May the Lord’s grace be with us.
I hope and pray that you and your communities are doing well. At this time of COVID-19 Pandemic, I would like to wish you the protection of God’s providence and inform you about the VSO response to the pandemic.
Beginning on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 the staff and I have been working remotely from our residences. We continue to serve the provinces, vice-provinces, and international missions in this new manner. The transition to a remote office with electronic documentation and filing took place several years ago. A few of our staff have been working remotely exclusively for several years.
Hence, the VSO adapted quickly to the new working situation. To add, The VSO continues to develop projects and seek funding for its current projects. Some of the provinces, vice-provinces, regions and international missions have open applications and projects with the VSO. I assure you that we are doing what we can to advance them. Also, the funding agencies continue to respond to our emails – they maintain services both in Europe and the United States. Some agencies, however, report delays in reviewing the grant submissions and sending funds to projects.
The VSO will be contacting our project managers in those sites where open projects are waiting for the transfer of funds. I welcome communication about how you are doing and how your projects are advancing. Because of COVID-19, the VSO understands that some of the important work may be delayed. Your country may or may not yet be dealing with the consequences of the pandemic. In actuality, conditions may change suddenly for you and your colleagues, resulting in delays. Confreres, if you run into a delay, please update the VSO about the impact on your project.
St. Vincent used to counsel the confreres about delays in projects, assuring them that a delay does not harm a project. If there is a delay then God will see it through. As a result, the success of the endeavor would be less dependent on our efforts than upon the work of God’s grace.
To close, we assure you that we will work to help you to advance your projects and may God’s grace bless our efforts during this pandemic.
Your confrere in St. Vincent,
Fr. Gregory J. Semeniuk, C.M.
Executive Director, VSO
