Friends,
Happy Easter! He is risen!
This has been a season of death, darkness, depression. We have walked through a hard journey this past year and we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was last year that we thought the lock down could last two weeks, maybe 6, then we should have been ready for Easter services. It didn’t happen. Now, a year later, with 2020 behind us and our rough start to 2021, we are ready to return to a world that feels a little more normal.
We will begin in person worship again on Easter. Please join us if you feel safe to do so for worship at 9:30am. There will be some adaptations, like no bulletins or hymnals, and communion will be done with the “to-go” cups; but, we get to be together in our building again!
We will continue with in person worship at 9:30am on Sundays while live streaming (details on how to get to the live stream to come).
I want to take a moment and congratulate us on getting to this point. It is an Easter miracle in many ways. Members of council worked really hard to make sure our most vulnerable members got their vaccines. All who are eligible and wanted to be vaccinated are vaccinated! This is huge and it only happened because we are a community that cares for each other.
This past year Acacia Park was a beacon of light to the Norridge community. We hosted food drives, made care kits, reached out to the lonely, continued to worship weekly, held baptisms, weddings, and funerals, and we got everyone vaccinated while advocating for other seniors in Norridge to get the help they need to get vaccine appointments.
This has not been an easy year. We have been tested and pushed to our breaking points, we have been locked in our homes, and we have not been able to gather as a body of Christ to find comfort and hope in tomorrow in person. I am proud of each of you for how you handled yourself, cared for others, and always found a way to be hopeful even if there were periods of doubt.
Now, we are at the resurrection. We lived through a period of death and dust to see the hope and new life that Christ gives. It does not mean our journey is over. There is still another, stronger variant on its way and there are still so many others that need the vaccine before we hit herd immunity. Just like the resurrection didn’t create a new world order - the pharisees were still running the church on Easter morning, vaccines will not get us back to normal overnight. We are still paying attention to infection rates and listening to science for guidance on if we need to return to virtual.
We are about to celebrate a new beginning on Easter with hope in our hearts for a brighter tomorrow!
I hope to see you in church.
In the risen Christ,
Pastor Meagan Sherman-Sporrong
