Heading back toward Public Worship - Rector's Rambling for June 28, 2020

This Sunday is harder than a 4th Sunday in Advent falling on December 23rd! 

We are so close to being able to have public worship once again at St. John’s Church!  Anticipation!

The bishops in Michigan are allowing us to offer public worship beginning on MONDAY, JUNE 29. This means that you can attend our 12:15 Masses on Monday through Wednesday and 10:30 on Thursday, or join us for Evening Prayer at 5 PM as well.  And on Sunday we can gather for worship as well.  More on Sunday in a minute.  All these services will continue to be livestreamed as well for those who cannot attend.

Things will not be ‘normal’ right away.  Masks are required, and for social distancing sake we will be roping off every other pew to keep people 6 feet apart.   There will be no coffee hour or using the space in the undercroft for anything other than the bathrooms.  And after some discussion and initial reticence by some leadership of our denomination, we will be celebrating The Holy Communion because it has proven to be safe with some reasonable precautions, including only distributing it in ‘one kind’, the Host.  The doctrine of Concomitance reaffirms that we receive all the Grace of the Sacrament in one kind or another.  There will be no sharing of the chalice in the beginning.

SUNDAY SCHEDULE - originally the dioceses were going to  limit attendance to a maximum of 50 people per service, but following the example of churches that have been open for 6 weeks, we are limited, for the time being, to 25% of occupancy.   The good news is that we have a HUGE church that seats 800+ people! So for the month of July here is the Sunday schedule.

7:30 Morning Prayer followed by

8:00 Holy Communion in the Chapel

(limit - 25 people)

10:00 Holy Communion in the Church

(limit - 200 people)

NOON - Holy Communion in Chapel

(limit 25 people)

5:00 - Evening Prayer in the Church

(limit 200 people)

The NOON service is a temporary addition, but the 5:00 Evening Prayer will stay on the schedule indefinitely.  Hymns will be sung at the 10 AM Service.