During this season of Lent, we beseech God to "Create in me a clean heart, O God", and of course, these are the same words I say as I wash my hands before celebrating the Eucharist with you, for Lent is a time of repentance, of stretching our minds to see something in a brand-new way (and in a way that opens our heart more fully to God and God's will), of scouring our souls for areas which need to be cleansed of that which we no longer need or that which breaks relationships among people we care about, and of having an open heart, free of obstacles that may impede our love of God and our neighbor.

In Lent, and also during this rather odd season of the Coronavirus, we are given the opportunity to cleanse our hearts of all that keeps us from caring about our neighbor, and we can do this by instituting the recommended safe practices of being physically distant from each other, and by understanding this is actually compassionate care for the other, who is our neighbor.

We are not expected to worship in person until the end of May, and even then, of course, we'll need to evaluate the situation, however, we will worship together in heart and spirit, each Sunday, and in-between. Holy Week and Easter worship is not cancelled. It will happen, though, in a very different format. It is actually an act of love that our church buildings will be empty on Easter, for it means we are caring for all those whom Jesus cared most about during his earthly ministry, those who may be vulnerable and susceptible to this virus.

I am certain that we already miss gathering in our beautiful sanctuary, seeing the familiar faces which form our part of the Body of Christ, and engaging in our familiar worship service which has brought our hearts to God each week. It is okay to be sad about that. And it is good to name this discomfort or sadness as real grief. We have lost something, our world has dramatically changed, and yet, as we state in the burial office, "Life has changed, not ended." Worship as we know it has changed, for a time, but it has not ended. Our hearts will still turn toward God and be changed, so that we can change the world. I am certainly feeling the absence of our regular gathering deeply as I miss all of you and yet I lean into the reality that God is holding each one of you in tender and fierce love-- and this allows me to settle into our new reality with hopefulness and trust.

Our bishop is offering loving and compassionate care for all members of her flock and are supporting the clergy in numerous ways that allow us to courageously and pastorally care for each one of you. All the decisions she makes regarding our common worship are for the safety of all of us and I am grateful for her compassionate and clear leadership in this time of trial.

As always, I am here for you, by phone call, email or text. Please reach out and let me know how you are and what I can do for you so you feel supported in this time of separation.

With growing love, Barbara+

Each week we will join our hearts and spirits together in worship. What I have most learned these past two weeks as I have shaped worship that I pray will touch your heart and meet your spiritual needs is that this is a time of experimentation. So we will try a variety of ways that we can join together in community-- and we'll see what works best. For this, of course, I need your input. Please email me your responses to the questions below that will offer me honest feedback. I am interested most in how you are able to engage in the worship, moving from "watching" the service to worshiping with your heart. I imagine there are elements for you that help you make that leap and the more I know, the more I can construct worship with others that works for us as a body. Right now, we are offering pre-recorded services. Once we have full-strength internet in the sanctuary (should be later today), we can experiment with "live" services through Zoom or Facebook Live.

Last week, we recorded a full service of The Holy Eucharist, and I appreciated your feedback. We learned a lot from a technical perspective and this week we were able to produce something that is visually clearer and offers more diverse views. This week, we offer a simpler and shorter service that focuses on God's Word exclusively, specifically on Psalm 130. We included hymns for you to sing, included different voices in the readings, and I offer a short homily. I must tell you, when you engage with it-- stay with the recording until the very end. The last two lines are the best (in my opinion!). They are what will give you hope for our world.

It is crucial during this time, when our efforts are focused on providing care for each other and on suddenly re-working worship to fit your spiritual needs in this time of physical distancing, that we continue to receive your regular financial offerings. All our expenses remain the same, even though we aren't coming together physically on Sunday. This is a time when I ask you to be particularly mindful of supporting the ministries and mission of our parish. We can't do this without you -- in fact, you ( and our love of Christ ) are the reasons we are doing all of this - so please continue your faithful support.

You can 1) mail your offering envelope to the church (206 E. Burd Street, Shippensburg), 2) set up online check payment with your bank so a check is issued from the bank and mailed directly to our parish, 3) open a VANCO account so that your money is automatically transferred into our church checking account. Click here for the link to our website, and 4) you can contribute through the diocesan giving tool - - click here . This is REALLY easy to do (just choose our parish) so I do encourage you to try this.

Thank you for your generous support of our ministries that allow us to be faithful ministers here in our parish and beyond. Mother Barbara

This is also a time when you may be experiencing your own financial hardship due to being laid off or reduced hours because of the mandate for all non-essential businesses to close-- or because the food pantries or community meal program has been reduced during this time of adjustment to our pandemic and you are in need of money to buy groceries, or you can't get your children into town to receive the free lunches offered by the school.

Please reach out to me. I have plenty of money in my discretionary account and it is designed for times such as these. I am here to help you, so please email, call or text me and we'll figure out how I can best help you through these hard times.

Also, our Shippensburg Civic Club is responding quickly to this same need and is asking for donations of Gift Cards in the amount of $10/$20 and cash donations to help meet the needs of the residents of our community.

If you are in need of receiving assistance, please let me know.

If you would like to contribute to meeting the needs of our own parishioners or members in our Shippensburg community, please donate to my Rector's Discretionary Account (write check to St. Andrew's, and put "Rector's Discretionary Account" in the memo line or to the Shippensburg Civic Club (write a check and mail it to P.O. Box 593, Shippensburg, PA or drop gift cards off at Katie's Place (130 S. Penn St., Shippensburg).