March 17, 2020
Dear St. Thomas Family,
As I wrote in the email sent to you this past Saturday, St. Thomas will not host Sunday or other services until at least April 6, at the guidance of our Bishop and in keeping with the current national crisis regarding the coronavirus. In similar vein, your Executive Committee, staff and I have agreed that cancelling all meetings and closing the building is in the best interest of the congregation, to do our part to keep you and the Sun Valley community healthy.
However, we want you to know that St. Thomas, as the vibrant congregation and marvelous church family that we are, continues to operate with the usual love, concern and care for you that we hope you experience when the building is open. We are a parish family that cares for one another, and your staff and I continue to work on your behalf, albeit remotely. Especially, I hope you will feel free to call Kathleen, (415) 823-5378, or me, (415) 786-3557, with any pastoral need that arises - or just to chat!
In that vein, let me review several areas of parish life with you.
1. Worship.
Beginning tomorrow (Wednesday, March 18), St. Thomas will offer remote live-streamed Morning Prayer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:00 a.m. while the church building is closed. (We will use Facebook for all live-streaming, as it seems to be the venue the largest portion of the congregation uses. If you are not on FB, you can sign-up and find the
St. Thomas page
easily.)
This Sunday, I will offer a simple homily, with perhaps a Scripture reading and prayer, at the usual worship time of 9:30am, also live-streamed.
You can also say daily Morning Prayer on your own, using the prayer book or one of the several phone apps available. There are many more opportunities for worship for you online and otherwise. See below.
2. Contact.
Your staff and I, and the Pastoral Committee, are dividing the parish into groups. Jeanne Cassell and Connie Hoffman are helping with this. (Thank you!) Each group will have a “facilitator” - a person to keep your group engaged with one another. In short, the goal of these groups is to give you an avenue of personal church connection in an intentional way. My hope is that you will use your group as a way to check on one another (via email or telephone call) and to pray for one another. I would like to encourage you to call and write those in your group for exactly that purpose, and always feel free (of course) to call your other parish friends who are not in your group! The goal of this arrangement is to keep us connected during this time. If you find you are not in a group and would like to be, please let Jeanne, Connie or me know! (Any oversight on our part is unintentional.)
3. E-News.
To keep you up to date and to offer perhaps additional inspiration, we plan to write to you at least twice each week, on Mondays and Thursdays. We might feel a special need as circumstances dictate to write you in addition to these days. Look for St. Thomas emails in your inbox.
4. Sabbatical Time.
It might seem like a stretch, but I want to encourage each of you to treat this time away from church, work and social gatherings opportunistically, as a gift from God. God is with us and continues to be with us, and extra time provides your opportunity to catch-up on reading, house-work or projects, playing games with your kids, and so on. Sabbath time from God is down-time, intentionally designed for personal reflection and restoration. As you may know, I am a writer and I intend to work on my writing, in addition to take care of you, my church family. I know of one family that plans to paint one of the kid’s room!
Following is a prayer you might want to offer daily or from time to time:
A Prayer for Universal Grace
adapted from the Book of Common Prayer
O merciful Father, who has taught in your holy Word that you do not willingly afflict or grieve anyone: Look with pity and care upon the human race, particularly the current sorrows and pain of those suffering from, or afraid because of, the coronavirus pandemic. Remember us, O Lord, in mercy, nourish our souls with patience, comfort us with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon us, and give us peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
I also direct you to the Book of Common Prayer and the forms of weekly prayers we offer on Sundays. (BCP 383, or go to
bcponline.org
) If you look in the BCP table of contents, you will find specific prayers for specific needs.
Again, feel free to contact any member of the staff for your church needs. We are here for you and care for you.
Peace and health,
Rob
