Zion is temporarily suspending weekend worship services, Wednesday evening activities (meal, study, and prayer), and other meetings until the end of March. Toward the end of the month, the situation will be reviewed.
We do not make this decision lightly, nor are we trying to induce panic. We are following the recommendations of the state and our synod.
Governor Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 20-52 declaring a State of Emergency for COVID-19 and directed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to activate the Florida Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to a Level II, to coordinate the state’s response to COVID-19. Last week, the governor issued Executive Order 20-51 directing the State Surgeon General to declare a public health emergency.
Today, Bishop Pedro Suarez of our Florida-Bahamas Synod recommended that congregations suspend all congregation gatherings, including worship and meetings, until the end of March.
Please keep checking your email and our webpage for further updates.
We are actively making plans to livestream worship in some way, as well as to provide an online giving option.
Meanwhile, if you would like communion at home, please let me know. My personal cell phone is 954-297-3665. I would be glad to help get medications, food, or help of some other kind if you are unable to leave your home. Others are welcome to join me, with health precautions, of course.
We are Zion together.
I leave you with this prayer given by our ELCA Churchwide Office:
Merciful God, we know that your heart overflows with compassion for your whole creation. Pour out your Spirit on all people living with this illness, or who are living with anxiety about this illness, for which there is not yet a cure. Be with those who tend to the needs of the sick. Strengthen us all in body and spirit, console us when anxious, comfort us in grief and hearten us in discouragement. Help to remind us that you claim us as your own and are with us wherever we go. Through Christ, our Healer and Lord. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor David E. Potter +
