Hallelujah!
The question has come up: when will we be back in church? The answer: Easter Sunday!
I am thrilled to announce that the Administrative Council has decided to return to in-person worship on Easter Sunday, April 4. Our worship service will be at our regular time of 10:30 am. We will be safe and take all the recommended precautions and masks will be required. Per CDC guidance, social distancing is reduced to 3 feet. We won't have singing during worship, but you can hum under your masks. Marna and Allen Garcia will help us with music and Allen has a surprise for everyone. At the end of the service, we will go outside and gather around the labyrinth and cross to sing “Christ, the Lord is Risen Today.” We will continue in-person worship after Easter, also.
We will not have our usual Maundy Thursday service, but I will be giving a message on Facebook Live at noon. You can watch the Facebook Live Maundy Thursday service anytime that day. The church will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. if you would like to pick up the elements for Holy Communion. You can then use the elements during the Maundy Thursday message on Facebook Live.
We are all getting excited about returning to church. If you have not been vaccinated or in any way are uncomfortable about returning to church in person, please know that we understand. We want everyone who comes to church to feel safe. If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to contact me. Just as there was some discomfort about social distancing, masks, and staying home at first, there will be some discomfort as our lives ease back to a more normal pattern. Some people like the staying home, while others are feeling somewhat despondent. I suspect that it will go the opposite way now for some. Please let me know if there is any way I can help you.
I also think it would be fun to put together a little time capsule of our “altered state of life” for the last year. I will have a box at the church through mid-May to collect items. If there are no items collected by the middle of May, we will let that idea go. Otherwise, we will add a little note and bury it somewhere, letting future generations know where it is buried.
I can't think of a better time to re-open (or resurrect) the church than Easter. Thank you to everyone who has continued to support the ministry of the church. Thank you to everyone whose everyday lives have lived out the message of God's love and compassion in our community. Thank you for helping each other get through this difficult time. Thanks be to God for helping us through the challenges that we have faced and may continue to face in some ways. Praise for God's comfort through the words and actions of others in our times of loneliness and isolation. Thanks to God that through Jesus’ resurrection we are assured that the “worst is never the last........and there is always hope.”
Shalom.....and can't wait to see everyone on Easter Sunday!
Pastor Rosemary