Back to Basics – Feeding the Hungry

(reminders of the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel)

You might remember reading a recent “call to action” from vestry member and Building Implementation Team (BIT) leader, Dawn Edquist. Less than one month since that call, and many thanks to the collective efforts of Dawn, Diana Skelton, Debbie Tanner, Cris Oman (and daughter Lavender), Margie Holt, and Larry, Debi, and Lindsey Nicolai, 200 bagged lunches were contributed as part of LINK’s continued support to the Four Oaks Day Service Center.  Lunches included meat and cheese sandwiches, condiments, fruit cups, chips, desserts, and bottled waters.  After making the sandwiches and assembling the bagged lunches, team members delivered 100 lunches on 3 June and another 100 on 10 June. As Anne+ and Marc+ continue to remind us, there are always ways we can extend a spiritual embrace to the most vulnerable members of our community, even in this time of social distancing.     

When will we be able to worship together in the sanctuary?

Dear friends,

Thanks to the hard work of our Bishop Susan Haynes and the diocesan Re-Gathering Panel, we have received the guidelines that each parish in our diocese must follow in order to regather for worship in our buildings. The guidelines are available here.  They are extensive, as they should be.

Your vestry and staff, guided by our Health and Safety Officer Joel Duregger, will work together to ensure that we meet every part of the established guidelines. Our ultimate concern is safety—yours, ours, and those outside our church for whom our decision has ramifications.

Please note that no Episcopal Church in our diocese may re-open a building for worship until there has been a statewide 14-day consecutive decline in new COVID-19 cases. Other requirements include agreement among clergy and vestry about our readiness to regather; and approval from the Bishop of a detailed reopening plan. We at St. Andrew’s are beginning to work on creating that plan and meeting the various requirements outlined in the diocesan guidelines.

All of this is to say: we are not yet at a point when we can state a specific regathering date.  

The only thing I can say for sure about timing is that the earliest possible date would be sometime in late July, although I don’t think even that is probable, given all that we need to consider and do before the building can reopen. 

I know this is hard news—sad and disappointing and frustrating. I miss you, and I very much miss being able to worship God together in person in our beautiful sanctuary. I, too, feel sad and disappointed and frustrated. 

I also feel responsible. At our Celebration of New Ministry in May of 2017, when I was installed as your rector, I prayed: May all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care (BCP, 562). Each of you is precious—to God, and to me. The decision about when to regather in person for worship is not one that I or any of the other faithful leaders here at St. Andrew’s is taking lightly.

Please hold me and all of our vestry and staff in your prayers as we strive to prepare for an eventual return to our beloved building, and know that we are praying for you, as well. Remember that we continue to be the Church even while we are not able to gather. God is with us, wherever we are, even to the ends of the earth.  

May you feel God’s love and presence surrounding you right now.

Every blessing,
Anne

St Andrew's Prayer Chain

Update from Anne

Dear Friends,

I hope and pray that this finds you and your loved ones safe and well in the midst of this difficult time.  I miss you, and I miss having the opportunity to visit you in your homes.  I am so grateful to the parishioners who are carrying out our phone ministry, and I hope that hearing from them has been a source of blessing and comfort to you.  Even when we are not able to gather in person, we are still the Church.  Each of you is still a beloved, precious child of God.  I am holding you in my prayers.

We do not yet know when the church building will be able to reopen.  I anticipate that it will not be for a number of weeks.  We are awaiting a set of specific guidelines from our diocese about how best to keep our parishioners safe.  That is my top priority:  your safety.  Once the diocesan guidelines come out, our Health and Safety Officer Joel Duregger will lead the staff and vestry in implementing those guidelines at St. Andrew’s; and then we will prayerfully and carefully decide when to reopen the building. 

Every blessing to each of you, on this Trinity Sunday and always.   

Anne

How to Celebrate Pentecost

Dear friends,

Pentecost, which this year falls on Sunday, May 31, is a major feast in the Christian year.  On Pentecost we celebrate God’s gift of the promised Holy Spirit.  We hear the passage from Acts 2 that tells the story of the Holy Spirit resting on the heads of the believers like tongues of fire, and we are reminded anew of our own anointing with the Spirit in our baptism.  The Spirit that empowers people for ministry has been given, individually and abundantly, to each of us.  That is reason indeed to celebrate!

We will celebrate that gift of the Spirit during our online worship at 10:30 AM on May 31, with readers proclaiming God’s good news in a multitude of languages, as happened on that first Pentecost.  We will wear red, to symbolize the flames of the Holy Spirit.  Our worship service will be followed by a virtual Zoom coffee hour, complete with red balloons provided by St. Andrew’s; and red clothing—provided by you!

What if you are not able to join us online?  You can still celebrate Pentecost!  Read Acts 2:1-21.  Imagine what it would have been like to be one of those early believers—or a bystander as the Spirit alighted and proclamation poured forth!  Dress in red on Pentecost Sunday.  Blow up your red balloons from St. Andrew’s, and be reminded of the way God breathes into you!

Red Balloons for Pentecost!!

St. Andrew’s has packaged a baggie of red balloons for every parish family for Pentecost.  The baggies will be available for St. Andrew’s parishioners in the St. Nicholas Chapel on Wednesday and Thursday, May 27 and 28.  On May 29, any remaining baggies will be on a table outside the church for our neighbors.  Baggies are also being delivered to those living in retirement communities and those who are not able to come to the church to pick theirs up.  (If you need to have your balloons delivered to you, please contact Bill Wilds at saec.bill19@verizon.net by noon on Thursday, May 28.)  We hope you will bring your inflated balloons to the virtual coffee hour on May 31!

Blessings!

Anne