Thursday, March 12, 2020
Dear St. Luke’s friends,
Our bishop, Rob Wright, St. Luke’s Vestry Executive Committee, my staff colleagues, and I are in an ongoing conversation about responding to the global pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19). We will continue to do so until the human family across the globe, and particularly we in Atlanta, have a sense that this crisis has passed. Human lives are at stake and so I write to inform you of certain temporary changes we sense are wise and healthy.
The goal in all our choices today is to discern what are the spiritually
and
physically healthy responses to this life-threatening crisis. There is a “both/and” in the changes I write to describe. We are cognizant that our community needs worship and communion in both Eucharistic and other social forms. We also need not to be in denial about the sober consequences facing us. We can compound the spread of illness and even death if we do not drastically rethink – in the short term - our religious practices while at the same time preserving the essentials.
Again, it is the power of Love for one another and for our human siblings globally which is leading us to make the following choices. The stark reality that we live in what Dr. King called the “world house” calls us to make these responses. As our bishop, who is supporting our decisions, just put it to me, “this situation is so fluid that as soon as you press the ‘send’ button, the situation has changed.” So, the following is a snapshot in time and not a set of permanent changes. And, you will be hearing from me frequently about our life in community over the foreseeable future.
We are asking you to participate in Sunday’s Eucharist through live streaming and NOT through your physical presence. The Rev. Horace Griffin and Director of Music Matt Brown will celebrate Sunday’s Eucharist at 10 a.m. only. The rest of us will participate in real time through this great instrument of live streaming.
Let me insert a personal note here about my physical absence. I had a wake-up call this week when I read this item from the CDC’s website about vulnerable populations
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html
. Although I feel like a 21-year old, I am 72. Exposure to the virus through droplets in the air when numbers of people gather can be fatal. As
Marian Urquilla
has written,
“Social distancing is an act of love. We have to slow the transmission chain.” By asking everyone to worship from home this Sunday, we are doing our lovingly responsible part to slow the transmission chain.
Consequently, there will be no “education hour” offered this Sunday morning. And our afternoon book study of Dr. Howard Thurmond’s
Jesus and the Disinherited
will also be postponed. On Wednesday, I will make my Soup and Scripture presentation with PowerPoint from the Parish Hall; however, we are asking you to participate via live stream and Facebook Live. “There will be Scripture with no Soup,” as Horace Griffin cleverly put it.
As indicated above, our ongoing conversation will evaluate each week’s decisions constantly. This may be our pattern for one week or more. Constant evaluation will be our rule of thumb.
Tomorrow’s gathering for the launch of Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt’s book has been canceled; as has
The Phoenix Flies tour
. We have postponed Daniel Siegel’s visit scheduled for March 22-23. Other cancellations or postponements include: Wednesdays at St. Luke's, the
Hunger Walk, Secrets of the Tower lock-in, New Beginnings retreat, and the youth pilgrimage to Iceland. The Mindfulness Retreat scheduled for this Saturday had already been postponed. The Atlanta Regional Housing Forum scheduled for March 19 has also been canceled. Our organizing leaders will be in touch about rescheduling events where appropriate.
We are aware of our need to be together. We are actively and rapidly researching how we can facilitate vital gatherings that will offer pastoral and spiritual support throughout our community while not endangering one another’s health.
This is a crucial moment to take Jesus seriously in his prayer that we all realize that we are One as he and our Loving God are One and to understand what Jesus told us --that our neighbors ARE ourselves. Consequently, because some of us have already contracted this virus, all of us are sick. Now is not the time to practice an ideology of separateness; we live interwoven lives with responsibility to care for one another by not unwittingly making one another sick.
Dr. King wrote, “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
As a friend recently wrote, “We are in this together. Let’s look out for each other. Let’s fight for the most vulnerable. And let’s keep our distance even while acknowledging our proximity.”
Please keep in mind how much each of us is loved fully and unconditionally.
In the spirit of that Big Love,
