As our local ministry continues to evolve I want to tell you what we have been doing this week to align our ministry with both the Governor's Executive Order and Bp. Fisher's recent recommendations.
The Governor's order asks that everyone now work from home. I already work from home and since our church office is already a solo office, Jean, our Parish Administrator will continue to work from the church office as well. We have, however now officially closed the church building to everyone other than Jean, our worship team, and our treasurer who will continue to get the mail, make deposits and pay our bills.
Both the Governor's order and the Bishop's guidelines allow us to continue to livestream worship as we have been doing as long as we do so with a group of ten or fewer. From this point forward we will live-stream using the same group of seven people every week to reduce the chance of cross contamination by adding new people to that mix.
Our Pastoral Care team has been reaching out to contact everyone in our congregation by phone, both to keep us all connected and to check in to see if you need any help. I would strongly encourage all of us to temporarily put aside our historically stoic, tough it out, go it alone, Lutheran and Episcopalian natures and ask for help when we need it! Call the church office or Trudy Miller and she will put the wheels in motion. There are a number of volunteers ready to shop for you, drive you to appointments, bring you a meal, or help you in any way. Your asking is not a burden! For the people who have volunteered, you asking is a gift that will allow them to do something tangible and make a difference in this crisis. Please ask and give them that gift!
Finally, thank you all for your care for one another, for tuning in to online worship and coming to the virtual coffee hour. It is good to see everyone’s face! Thank you for your generosity and your continued financial support of our church. Thank you for the care you give your neighbors beyond our church and for your prayers for the Christ Trinity family and the whole world. We will get through this together with God and with one another!
Pastor Erik+
