Earlier today Bishop Stoke's pastoral letter was emailed to our entire parish. I urge you to take the time to read it as he begins by grounding us in our trust in God and concludes with a thoughtful prayer for the world. But I wanted to use this space to highlight some of his points and share with you some of the decisions taken by our Executive Committee last night as they determined how we will function during this time at St. Martin's.
- First, St. Martin's exists primarily as a worshipping and serving community of faith in Jesus Christ. Our worship revolves around the Eucharist which will continue to be celebrated at least every Sunday.
- We will continue to consecrate and offer both bread and wine at all Eucharists. The use of a Common Cup when it is metal and uses alcohol and is carefully wiped clean after each use continues to be considered a safe way to receive. However, Bishop Stokes has prohibited the practice of intinction, dipping the Bread, as this has been found conclusively to be a way germs are transmitted. Since the Middle Ages the Church has taken the position that receiving with elements in either kind are spiritually the same as receiving both. Therefore some may choose during this time to receive only the consecrated Bread. If you choose to receive just the Bread and not the Cup, Bishop Stokes suggests you cross your arms after receiving the Bread and the Eucharistic minister will still offer the sacred words, "The Blood of Christ, the Cup of Salvation" before you. As always, no-one will ever be turned away from Christ's Table. If you choose to receive neither the Bread nor Cup, but still wish God's blessing, please simply cross your arms and a priest will bless you.
A few other practical and spiritual matters....
The Passing of the Peace is a crucial part of our liturgy each week. During this time of caution, we have been advised to limit physical contact with one another. Therefore, we will speak the peace to one another, but please refrain from our norm of shaking hands or embracing. I am sad about this, but agree it is necessary for the moment. This is equally so when entering or leaving church.
One of the powerful gifts at St. Martin's is the presence of the Baptismal Font at the entrance to the church. The font will still be there as a reminder of who and whose we are, but for the time being the water will be removed as it, too, has been determined to be a prudent precaution.
No one appreciates a good coffee hour with lots of goodies more than our bishop, but he has suggested that during the remainder of Lent, we forego sharing food at coffee hours. This may impact our plans for a Maundy Thursday shared supper as well, but it was decided to wait just a little longer to make a decision regarding that.
If you were at Mass last Sunday, you may have noticed that we were about half as many people as usual. In calling serval colleagues I learned we were not alone in that. We understand people's anxiety about public gathering and want you to know each person's decisions on how to respond to all this personally will be respected. We know that you love worship. For the past few months we have been posting our sermons on Facebook. Today I will begin exploring the possibility of posting our entire service. Some in our diocese have said they are looking into doing a Zoom meeting for Sunday Eucharist. Zoom was developed for regular meetings, but it is thought it might be adapted for a worship setting. If that happens at St. Martin's we would send out an email link to give you access to the service. It would also be saved and accessible for a limited amount of time following each week's service. I appreciated the attitude and advice of your wardens last night that perhaps blessings may come from this if we learn new ways to be God's people in the world for today's challenges.
No doubt there will be more to come. We need to be adaptive and open minded. We will do our best to be responsible and compassionate. Please don't hesitate to contact me with ideas or concerns or questions, whatever... It is my joy and honor to serve with you, in Jesus' name.
Tim Mulder+
