Our parish is suspending ALL worship services & gatherings for the next 3 weeks (at least)…This decision was made by a group of our clergy and lay leaders, including 3 expert physicians & some other members of the healthcare field, who are members at our church. I was not part of these discussions, but I’m really proud of our leadership.
To be honest, I struggled w/the decision at first (which I found out yesterday before it was announced today). We are Anglicans. I believe we need the Eucharist at least as much as we need food or water. The church continues to meet in wartime, persecution, & every circumstance. But my husband (also a priest & on staff & higher church catholic than I am) replied w/o a beat, “As important as it is to celebrate Eucharist & gather to worship, love of neighbor is at least as important. And it is not loving our neighbors well to gather in large groups now.”
And he is completely right. Our church isn’t doing this out of fear (I have seen 0% fear in the clergy or lay leadership), but out of a desire to love our community well, to protect our healthcare system & the most vulnerable. We are trying to be the church in this pandemic.
One doctor said, “If we cancel services we may have the opportunity to save a few lives.” We’re only doing this for 3 weeks (& then will reevaluate). We’ll live stream morning prayer with a sermon on Sundays. This doesn’t endorse “online” disembodied church in any long-term way.
We are still committed to be an embodied, eucharistic, orthodox community, but we realize that we need to act soon and decisively out of love of neighbor. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary responses.
Friends, why wouldn’t we take the necessary precautions, especially considering being overly cautious might save a few lives?
Ask Yourself: Who Can I Help?
Finally, there’s one more thing those of us who are young and healthy need to consider in all of this: Who can we help right now? For instance:
Do you know someone who’s self-quarantined and needs help running an errand?
What about your elderly neighbor you haven’t seen for a while? Is he or she doing ok?
Your friend who just went through chemotherapy–maybe you should give him or her a call.
When you’re out in public, are you diligent to avoid touching things? If you touch something, are you doing what you can to sanitize it?
Does your church leadership need help as they establish a contingency plan for meeting in person? What about ministries that are temporarily paused–anything you can do to continue that work?
What about the elderly couple who normally sits behind you at church. Do they know how to access a live-stream of the service?
What happens if people avoid church and unwittingly forget to tithe? Could you give a little extra this month?
The long and the short of it, friends, is that this is not about us. It’s about the people who are vulnerable to the virus. This is about taking the opportunity to think of someone else before we think of our own comfort or convenience. We should thank God for such an opportunity.
P.S. Please, take an extra 30 seconds at the gym to wipe down your equipment–it’s not that hard.
