Coming back to Church - Rector's Rambling for August 16, 2020

Today is our seventh Sunday open since the shutdown for Coronavirus.  I am so grateful that we are here together to worship Almighty God, and to receive the Blessed Sacrament!

Back in March, when things started to shut down, if you had told me that in August we would be at 33% average Sunday attendance, wearing masks in church, no choir, and only receiving Communion in one kind, I would have thought you mad.  Now here we are, doing all those things as precautions against the spread of infection.

As of last week, of the nine Episcopal churches in the city limits, we are the only one open for public worship.  Additionally, many of the suburban parishes are still not open for worship for a variety of reasons.  I understand that there are many parishioners with pre-existing health issues, and even some older clergy who would be considered high risk, that precludes them from participating in public worship.

We all want to be safe, and keep others safe too.  But to be honest, I have been surprised that more church members here and elsewhere are not as anxious to get back to the worship of Almighty God.

I am coming to believe that the devil is using our best intentions to keep others healthy and distorting it to keep us from worshipping Our Lord and receiving the Blessed Sacrament.  There is nothing the evil one hates more than Christians worshipping and being strengthened by the Grace of our Lord’s Body and Blood.

Thanks be to God for those who are present here at St. John’s today to worship and receive Communion, and for those tuning in on our livestream to worship but can’t be with us because their health precludes their being here with us.  And let us pray for those who are just not sure yet, that God will help them to have the strength to venture here in faith.

A few weeks ago, at Sunday Evening Prayer, a parishioner asked me a question that practically devastated me.  He asked, “do you think we will have a normal Christmas Eve Service?”  It hadn’t crossed my mind that this could go on until the end of December.  When can we have the choir back?  When will we have regular worship?  When can we fill the pews?  These are all things to add to your prayer list, trusting God in His Providence!