Dear friends,
What a glorious birthday party we had! A giant dove. Tongues of fire. Peace shared in dozens of languages. Lively, inspiring music. Bubbles floating. Popcorn turned inside-out. Children laughing. The Spirit moving through our joy at seeing one another; the Spirit moving through wires and waves to connect us from Massachusetts to Florida to Arizona to Virginia!
As Kelly and George sang the postlude, I was sitting near the pray-ground, where there was lots of dancing happening. Later that day, I thought about the ways the entire morning was a dance: a joyous, complex, brand-new dance as we try to figure out the rhythm and the steps of coming together after 14 months of physical separation. Is it okay to give an old friend a hug, or should we stick with the less-than-satisfying virtual hug for a little longer? Can we sing? Should we wear masks? How do we create a worship service that helps us feel connected whether we are in person or zooming in from afar? How do we honor that we are in different places—in our vaccine processes, with our health vulnerabilities, in our comfort level with the dizzying pace of opening back up?
It is a delicate dance, with moves we haven’t yet memorized and new moves constantly being introduced. It takes a great deal of care to avoid stepping on each other’s feet; it takes a great deal of grace to laugh when we trip over our own feet! Fortunately, we are blessed with an abundance of care and grace, offered and received. I am grateful for a community so willing to learn this new dance and so gracious and caring in the process. We’ll figure it out together. It will be a joyous, beautiful dance.
Part of this dance involves finding the right pace to phase forward in the coming months. The results of our congregational survey and the discussion in our May Church Council meeting affirmed the working model the Phasing Forward Team has developed:
- For the summer, each month we will hold two outdoor services and two simplified zoom services. We will livestream the outdoor services, experimenting with ways to enhance everyone’s experience while keeping staffing and volunteer responsibilities sustainable.
- As weather permits, we will move some of our weekday programs outdoors.
- As vaccination rates continue to increase and virus rates decrease, we will explore some small indoor gatherings—perhaps a vespers service in the sanctuary.
- If it is safe to do so, we will move into the sanctuary for Sunday morning worship sometime in the fall.
- All these plans are dependent on the generosity of congregational volunteers helping with set-up, tech support, greeting, and clean-up.
For the summer, the staff has selected a theme building on Pentecost: A Celebration of Spirit. Each outdoor worship service will offer a joyous, creative celebration of a quality of the Holy Spirit. The Zoom service the following Sunday will dive deeper into that same quality, with a more reflective sermon.
We hope this model will offer joyous connection and deep reflection throughout the summer.
Peace, Debbie