A year later! - Rector's Rambling for September 27, 2020

A year ago this Tuesday I began the adventure of lifetime.  One which I don’t care to repeat.

       In the picture, a screen shot from a video on YouTube, is yours truly being airlifted off a cruise ship in the Baltic Sea.  I am that orange speck in the middle of the picture, being lifted in a stretcher from the deck up to the helicopter.

That was Sunday night, September 29, 2019.  Within a few hours I was in surgery at a hospital in Turku, Finland, where they removed 2/3 of my large intestine due to an infection that started with diverticulitis and went rogue from there.

When the medical team, in consultation with the ship’s captain and the Cleveland Clinic decided that I needed to be medevacked to a hospital, things got really grim, really quickly.  My family (Jennifer, Meg, Will, and my mother and father-in-law, came to the ship’s hospital to “say good-bye”.  Jennifer had to pack a quick backpack for me to take – and, of course, that included my 1928 Prayer Book/King James Bible combination (after all, I had Morning and Evening Prayer to pray in the days ahead).  It was a most frightful and somber time.

Soon I was being carted through the back hallways of the ship, taken to a crew-only deck, strapped into a basket-type stretcher and in a few minutes time I was suspended in the air, slowly approaching the helicopter above.

I have to say, about half way up to the helicopter I had a thought, “this is kinda cool”.  But that may have been the morphine talking.

A 35 -minute flight back to Turku and by 3:30 AM I was in surgery.  Meanwhile, Jennifer and the rest of the family had to continue on to Sweden where they took a ferry back to Turku, arriving the day after my surgery.

My recovery, even according to the U.S. doctor who followed up afterwards, has been nothing short of miraculous.  But then again, we believe in miracles.  I could feel the prayers of the good people of St. John’s, friends, and family!  And the fact that I returned back to work three weeks later (but not quite full speed for a few weeks after) is testament to the healing power of Dr. Jesus, the prayers of the faithful, and a great medical team in Turku, Finland.

And a year later I am still most grateful.  To God be the glory.

 

Coffee Hour and Choir - Rector's Rambling for September 20, 2020

 As you know, I am so incredibly grateful that we are able to gather together for public worship.  Each week, members are returning back to worship, and it is always so wonderful to see people return to receive the Blessed Sacrament and participate IN REAL LIFE with the church at worship.

Recently a member mentioned that she and a few others have begun to discuss how we could do coffee hour safely, and I am so glad that people are thinking ahead about how we can do these things.

First of all, we do have to wait until the Bishops in Michigan move us to the next re-opening phase.  Until then we are not supposed to be gathering together after services nor serving food or drinks.  Those who have begun discussing among themselves have come up with great ideas which are in keeping with the guidelines for the next phase in order to have social gatherings safely.  This includes having coffee served rather than people helping themselves to the coffee pot, and having food given to people rather than people helping themselves and sharing tongs.

Chris Golembiewski has decided it is time to “retire” from being coffee coordinator, a task she has done with great dedication for many, many years.  I am very grateful for her good work done with love.

Besides Coffee Hour, the other glaring missing thing from our gathering on Sunday is the choir.  Dr. Lewis is working on how we can begin to incorporate a quartet into the worship, socially/musically distanced.  Thankfully he has resources on this through the college where he works and the example of other churches such as The Church of the Advent in Boston, who introduced a quartet from their choir into their Sunday Mass last week.

God willing things will begin to get back toward normal as we glorify God and are equipped for ministry through worship and fellowship.

 

Paving the road to hell? - Rector's Rambling for September 13, 2020

 I recently heard someone utter that old adage “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and it struck me as particularly true at this time.

We all want to keep each other safe.  During our current pandemic we have done things like “stay home and stay safe” and wear masks and social distance in order to “keep others safe” and not spread the virus.  That is a good thing – nobody wants to endanger others.

But Satan has an old trick up his sleeve, one that he uses to damaging effect.  He takes the best of our intentions and desires, and finds a way to distort them.  He is not creative, but destructive.  And he is having at it at this time.

What is a good desire to stop the spread of this virus has now become a deep-seated fear of being with others.  The devil has pushed us over the edge from caution to fear, and this kind of fear damages psychologically as well as spiritually.  And this fear is now preventing people from attending public worship.  The devil rejoices that people are NOT receiving Communion.  He is so glad that we are spiritually starving ourselves by thinking it is not safe for us to be in church together in order to worship.  And if I hadn’t been assured in Scripture that the gates of Hell will not prevail of Jesus’ Church, I would be more worried that a mortal blow has been struck to the church under the guise of trying to keep one another safe.

St. John’s has been open for Public Worship since the beginning of July, the only Episcopal Church in the city of Detroit.  The Roman Catholic Churches have been open since May 19 and other churches opened up somewhere in-between.  Taking reasonable precautions of wearing masks, social distancing in our spacious building, and receiving Communion in just one kind (the bread) for now, not only are we able to prevent the spread, but more importantly, we ARE WORSHIPPING and we ARE RECEIVING COMMUNION!  Thanks be to God.  And nowhere in Metro Detroit has there been a spread of COVID-19 in a church taking these reasonable precautions.

If you have been exposed to COVID-19, or have other health issues that put you at high risk, please continue to absent yourself physically from public gathering at Church and continue to participate via livestream.

But if you are able to go to work, go to school, go to the store, go to museums/parks/zoo/gyms or other public places, but you think that being at Church to worship the Living God and to receive Communion is too dangerous, give me a call and we can chat about it.

All of life involves risk, and we take precautions to mitigate that risk.  Precautions are being taken in the Church and we do feel that it is very important for us and for the world that we be together in prayer now more than ever!

Social distancing requirements are that we be at 25% of occupancy, which means we can have 25 people at the 8:00 AM Service, 200 at the 10:00 AM Service, and 200 at the 5:00 PM Service.  Right now we are getting about 60 people all together at the three Services.  Last year our Average Sunday attendance was 157.  Praying now that we move closer to maximum occupancy of 425.  See you in Church.

 

Programming on hold - Rector's Rambling for September 6, 2020

 

About this time of the year the Church begins to ramp up her programming.  After this Labor Day weekend things usually shift into a new gear.

Following what is basically a school year schedule, the Church generally resumes Christian Education as well as meetings of groups such as the St. Catherine’s Guild and the Daughters of the King after taking a hiatus in June, July, and August.

But this year so much is still on hold.  I am happy that we are able to meet for public worship, which we have been doing now for 10 weeks.  We continue to be the only parish in the city that is open for Sunday public worship and I am grateful for the response from so many to return.  I hope and pray that more and more parishioners and guests will discover that it is safe to come back to church for worship with such a large facility that allows for social distancing in the pews.  As I have mentioned in the emails to parishioners, we could quadruple our attendance at the 10:00 AM Service and still have enough room to stay six feet apart.  I would have to do a lot of moving around to distribute Holy Communion in the pews for 200 people, but I have been getting in shape this summer and would like that challenge.

And although the rest of our classes and programming are on hold, now is the time for us to start praying about how we can become a more mission minded parish.  How do we shore up our faith and become outward looking as well in order to share it?  Worship is, of course, the central act of the church, and it is the place that we are starting!  And as we ease back into gathering for other activities, we can begin both our deepening education for sanctification, and working on the missional outreach of things like The Alpha Course, engaging the community with the gospel, and inviting people into relationship with Jesus Christ through various faith-based programming.

A reminder that you may have friends who want to return to church and receive Communion, but their own parishes are not open yet.  Invite them to join us on Sunday until their own parish reopens.