May 21, 2020
Dear Grace Church Community,
Even though baseball season is not underway, this week our Governor threw us a slider. We thought his announcement on reopening was coming in right over the plate, and then he kneecapped us. He announced on Monday that houses of worship could open this weekend. There were some guidelines, but there is very little scientific evidence that supports this decision. There is limited information to help us discern how we should gather in buildings to worship. Prior to the Governor’s decision, Bishop Douglas Fisher, in coordination with other bishops in the Commonwealth, sent out a pastoral letter that stated “While the Governor's plan goes into effect tomorrow, I remind you all that no congregation may return to in-person worship before July 1, and only when the criteria for readiness have been met, affirmed by the deans and approved by diocesan leadership.”
I am grateful for the compassionate and prudent guidance of our Bishop. While the Berkshires have up until now, been lightly touched by this highly infectious and deadly virus, we are not immune to the world. This virus does not observe or respect any borders. There still is no treatment if you become ill, nor adequate or reliable testing, nor any effective means of tracing those who are infected. Church gatherings have been the source of deadly super-spreading where one person who may be without symptoms, infects others in close proximity, leading to widespread illness and even death in the larger community. This is something we cannot support here. As the Rev. Laura Everett and the Rev. Jennie Barrett Siegal stated earlier this week, “Churches are designed to be places of healing, not sources of sickness. These minimum safety standards from the state are received with much concern for those people most at-risk in our churches and our communities.”
I, along with my sisters and brothers of faith, continue to read and listen and pray. I know that we all ache to be together, to be present in body, mind and spirit with each other. But we must respect the science. We must respect the devastating nature of this virus. We must love one another, especially when we are tired of the restrictions, even when we long to gather for worship in a time of fear and anxiety. This is the time when God is most at work. When we are disrupted from our daily routine, when our expectations are upended, we are pushed to look for how God is at work in our midst. God used the time of wilderness to show God’s people how to trust in God, how to care for each other, how to receive with gratitude what God provided.
Before we reopen our buildings, might we first reopen ourselves. Might we reopen our eyes, our hearts, our lives to the new that is being created? Might we reopen ourselves to the unexpected good that is happening in our midst? Might we reopen ourselves to those things that are different, but yet are making space for many who are in need of the love that God working in us has to share? Might we spend this time, rather than rushing to what was, to reopen ourselves to new life and life abundant for ourselves and for all God’s children—a life that enhances and does not add pain, a life that leads to life, love that leads to love, joy that leads to joy, hope that leads to hope. Might we reopen to what God is calling us to be and do right now in this place?
For this time, Grace Church will continue to offer opportunities for worship, prayer, study, and fellowship online. We are learning every moment how to use this technology and how to make it better and more available to people who long for the Good News all over our country and beyond. We have something very special to share at Grace Church—a willingness to serve, a desire to welcome all, an ability to share our story of love and loss and resurrection. We invite you to join us and invite everyone you know to come and see, to allow God’s love to give us the peace that surpasses understanding even in this time of disruption and tragedy. We need each other and we need our community. God is always doing something new that invites us to be a part of bringing God’s kingdom to earth. God is always inviting us to lead and live through love.
This Sunday, you are invited to join us as we celebrate our Agape Service. You are invited to prepare a special place for an offering of food and drink in your own homes that we will bless together and consume in remembrance of God’s deepest love for us. It is familiar to you as communion, but it is different in that we are not gathered physically together. It is good to be reminded, particularly in this time of separation, that God loved us so much that God came to be with us, to celebrate life and to experience all that life brings, including suffering and death. Accompanying this letter, I am sending a reflection by the Rev. Steve White about what this time invites us to consider about the meaning of presence. May it be helpful.
Please let me know if I, or others in our community, can be of support to you in this time. I am available by phone and online. I pray for you daily and know that God is doing more for you than I could ask or imagine. And I also know that this is a very difficult time. You are never alone. Know that you are loved.
May the peace of God be with you always.
Janet
Click on this link below to read Rev. Steve White’s reflection on The Theology of Presence.
