Greetings friends,
We wanted to take a moment to speak to the ache we’ve all been feeling to return home to our building and worship together, in person. This is and has been, of course, the Coordinating Council’s responsibility to make the call, but we also wanted to address the posture we’ve been taking into this ongoing conversation.
Eugene Peterson once wrote that it is the job of the pastor to “say ‘God’” in all situations. It is our vocational responsibility, in all circumstances, to keep asking the question: “How can we most faithfully embody God’s Spirit of Love right now?” The conversations about the life of the church in this season of COVID-19 is no different. All those months ago, when the world started to shut down to “flatten the curve,” we asked, “How can we most faithfully embody God’s Spirit of Love right now?” which at the time meant – how do we best care for those most vulnerable to this virus? How could we protect folks over 65, or folks who were immunocompromised? The answer was clear: Shut it down, at least for a while. Figure out how to meet online, to provide community without physical proximity, to find God in exile.
Just a few weeks ago, a friend of Northminster approached us asking about using our building. They wanted to create a psychoeducational space for LGBTQ+ teens. A physical, rather than virtual space was important, especially for teens who could not speak safely at home around non-affirming parents. They said there would be about ten kids with masks, sitting 6 feet apart, with mandatory temperature checks at each meeting. Our primary question to discern an answer with the Coordinating Council was, of course: “How can we most faithfully embody God’s Spirit of Love right now?” The answer seemed clear: Let the group use the space.
This, of course, gives many of us a twinge in our gut. Why does this group get to use our space when we do not? It hardly seems fair, especially when other churches seem to be meeting without a problem! The temptation is to speed things along, to get back to our building, to come back home together… but again, we must return to the question: “How can we most faithfully embody God’s Spirit of Love right now?” The numbers in our area are still frightening. We still have older and immunocompromised congregants to protect. If we were to try to resume the Sunday morning service in person, we would still have to meet in an extremely limited capacity, with no singing, based on expert recommendations. We would still have folks who couldn’t attend, and as soon as we make that switch, we could no longer offer an online service of any comparable quality. The answer seems clear: hold off a bit longer.
Of course we will continue to re-visit the question as conditions change, holding each new circumstance into the light to discern the most loving and responsible way forward. We are keeping an eye on numbers and trends, and are imagining new ways to meet in small groups or home groups as soon as it is safe to do so.
If you need access to the building or you're part of a group or commission that you feel would benefit from using the building again safely, please reach out and let us know so we can work through each, unique situation faithfully and safely.
We are all aching for the day when we can safely return and worship together, but until then, we must keep seeking God in exile, keep finding creative ways to connect and be kind, and keep asking, again and again,“How can we most faithfully embody God’s Spirit of Love right now?”
In Peace, Hope, and Love,
Claire and Zach
