The Promise of New Life
The novelty of watching the Houston Rockets play basketball this week came with an awareness of how abundant our choices for entertainment were a few months ago. Sports, concerts, restaurants, coffee shops, and more were there for us to freely navigate. While there were so many venues for enjoyment, there remained one steady and constant source for meaning, comfort, assurance, and community: Church. While so many of the sources for fun and entertainment have abated during this pandemic, church has not disappeared, even if it has been different. I have spoken with many of you in the past week alone who yearn to come back and question why we have yet to do so. I hear you and I too want to be in church. I absolutely cannot wait to baptize all the little ones who are ready (at least ten babies are awaiting the gift of baptism, four of which have been born in the last few months!). I also can’t wait to welcome the dozens of people who were ready to join the church when the Bishop was to visit. I believe that the ever-expanding scope of the Holy Spirit’s work continues through Holy Spirit.
This pandemic has been an unprecedented moment of ever evolving complexities of concerns. We have been given guidance by our diocese to postpone regathering. At the same time, our vestry has been in an ongoing conversation of balancing as safe as possible with as soon as possible. Our staff has worked hard to manage systems and prepare precautions. We are being proactive to make this transition as well as it can possibly be made in the hopefully not too distant future. That said, I am certain that I will receive responses to this article that will strongly question the wisdom of even considering regathering. I understand your concerns as well. Just today I received an emailed article about a church that opened recently with one person who did not know he was positive for COVID-19 inadvertently infecting 53 people at a service, 18 of which gave it to at least one more person for a total spread to 91 folks. As I recently said to a friend, none of the options we are choosing from are good options.
All that said, I don’t believe we have been without God’s presence and grace or deprived of the Good News as we still offer worship every Sunday morning, albeit virtually. Further, we have had a growing group of people who have found our church through the virtual services who otherwise may not have found their way into a pew. Further, we have discovered the efficacy of offering online services for those who would not have been able to attend church even if we were still in person. In response to this insight, we have plans to continue offering online worship indefinitely even after the pandemic is past. I ask your prayers and patience in this moment. Even as long as this moment has lasted, it is still only a moment and we will prayerfully make the best decisions that can be made as we move forward. You are ever in my prayers. Our clergy pray for you every day. We have a God who intrinsically promises new life and while no one ever knows what new life will look like or what the transition will be like, we know God is good and steadfast. May God bless us in our anticipation.
We love you and God loves you.