Closed until May 10? - Rector's Rambling for March 22, 2020

This has been the worst Lent for me, ever.  Every year I look forward to Lent; the disciplines, classes, and extra worship opportunities are things I love!

As we now know, our country has been trying to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus, also known as the Novel Coronavirus.  Lent started with the virus seemingly far away and not an immediate concern for us – “just be sure to wash your hands”.  But quickly it appeared on our shores and scientists and experts began the work of figuring out how to slow down the spread.  Each day has brought another recommendation and restriction.

Now we are fully under urgent need to “flatten the curve” of the spread through “social distancing”, which means we are not supposed to be gathering in groups, and should be avoiding public places as much as possible.

On Tuesday, March 17, the bishops of the four Episcopal Church dioceses in Michigan issued a Pastoral Directive, stating,

“In addition to continuing to forgo all public, in-person worship services, we direct you to cease all other Sunday, Saturday and weekday in-person gatherings, including weddings, funerals, memorial services, bible studies, prayer meetings, and non-emergency baptisms, and place all of the groups that gather at your congregation on hiatus for the CDC’s recommended eight weeks, or until May 10th, including both Holy Week and Easter.”

So now we enter a new, temporary reality of being The Church, and doing church, without gathering together at the church building.

One bright point is we are WAY AHEAD of the curve on livestreaming our Services over the Internet.  On Sunday, March 8, three-hundred-and-twenty-six people joined the service live on-line, and by the end of that day over fifteen-hundred people had watched the Service on YouTube and Facebook.  And even our Tuesday 12:15 PM Mass had 206 people watching.  We are reaching out in remarkable ways.

The Vestry and other leaders, along with the staff and I, are already at work developing more on-line material to keep us, and our Internet community, engaged.  In addition to worship livestreams, classes will be recorded and posted, and social media engagement taken up another notch.

And of course, we have to have all parishioners and friends continue to support the parish prayerfully AND financially throughout these times.

A parish in Florida posted on Instagram “Fearless Faith in Frantic Times“.  This time is full of much uncertainty and anxiety, but when it comes to our faith in Jesus Christ, we move forward with fearlessness as we strive to fulfill the St. John’s Mission Statement –  To know Christ and to make Him known.

Let us pray for each other during these trying times.