Hip Hip Hooray! - Rector's Rambling for March 28, 2021

     Hip hip Hooray!  We are open back to our Phase 2 level, according to the standards set by the four dioceses here in Michigan.  This means we can be at 25% occupancy of our church (200 people max.) and our chapel (30 people max.), which is plenty of room for our current service-attending parishioners, and room for guests to join us too.

This phase puts us back to the standards we followed from July until November 22, when we managed to navigate having worship safely.  These last 18 weeks have seen us doing nine to ten services a weekend, at “nine-plus-the-priest”, in order to have room for those who desired to join us for worship.  So instead of 36 weekend Communion services in those 18 weeks, and 36 Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer, we managed 140 Communion services and 38 Offices, for a total of 178 weekend worship services.  Thank you all for your patience and perseverance.  This weekend and next we will whittle it down to three weekend Masses (one Saturday, two Sunday) and then after Easter will return to two Masses on Sunday.  The return of Tiger Baseball and the interference of parking and traffic/road closures makes it prudent to suspend the Saturday service after April 4.

Speaking of worship opportunities, we have plenty of them this week, being Holy Week.  Maundy Thursday we have only one Communion service, at 7:00 PM, the Commemoration of the Last Supper.  Good Friday we will gather for the Liturgy of the Day, followed by a series of mediations on the Last Words of Christ, from noon to 3:00 PM.  Saturday evening at 6:00 PM we will have the grand Easter Vigil service, and then we will, of course, be celebrating the Resurrection on Easter Day next Sunday.  Be sure to come, and invite others as well!