Dear St. John’s Community,
I am thrilled to share that we are moving forward in regathering as an in-person worshiping community. Let me be clear, we will not be able to immediately return to worshiping like we used to, but we are about to dip our toes back into the water of in-person worship, and, together with our Regathering Task Force of St. John’s, I have a two-part plan for Sundays starting September 13th.
The first part will be a worship service inside the church. It will be a return to Holy Eucharist. At this early stage for the sake of safety, we will have a very limited number of participants (e.g., clergy, crucifer, chalice bearers, organist, and lay readers). The service will be livestreamed and will include our fabulous choirs singing remotely (pre-recorded) just as they have been all summer. We hope that the opportunity to watch the service live will both enhance the worship experience for those at home and help bind us together as a community of faith. The service also will be recorded, so those unable to watch the service live can enjoy it later.
The second part, also beginning on September 13th, will be in-person gatherings on Sunday afternoons in outdoor locations mostly where parishioners live. We plan to have a short prayer service, distribution of communion, and the chance to enjoy being with one another in fellowship once again. We are lining up multiple locations for each Sunday with a hope that we can welcome everybody who would like to come. Our plan is for clergy to be present at all of these gatherings. We will send out ways to sign up beforehand.
For the return to Eucharistic worship, the bread and wine that will be blessed on the altar in the morning will then radiate out to be distributed to all who would like to receive at the afternoon gatherings.
Several private schools and parishioners have graciously offered outdoor space for these gatherings. We welcome additional suggestions for other possible locations.
I continue to look forward to the day when we all can join together in the church, but in the meantime, I am excited about this next phase of our worship together.
