Hybrid Zoom/In Person Worship

Sometimes there is a lot going on behind the scenes. For months our intrepid team (Mother Sisk, Calvin Garrett and Jim Hopkins) has gathered information, equipment and experience. They have encountered numerous obstacles, complications and bugs, but diligently, together, they have solved one problem after another. Finally, this week we are ready to experimentally open our live, 11:00AM Eucharist to Zoom participation. In this BETA-LIKE experience we expect that there will be a lot more learning, much of which will come from those who sign in with Zoom and offer their feedback.

It is our hope that many of you will help us in this transitional period. There will be three ways to participate on a Sunday morning. For the next few weeks, we will continue to offer the 9:30am Morning Prayer Zoom service. At 11am we will offer a live choral eucharistic service that we hope many of you will choose to attend. The additional third piece is that we will send out a Zoom invitation for the 11:00am service and ask those of you at home will consider attending this service on your computers. It is from this group that we expect that we will learn how to make this process completely interactive between those actually in the Church and those who are participating through Zoom.

Thank you for your patience, perseverance and prayers. The events of the past couple of years has been difficult for all of us. It has challenged our faith but has also called upon us to respond creatively and accept change. In easier times we accepted the hard work of those who went before us and established norms that we took as eternal verities. As devastating as the pandemic has been, the church has found a renewed dedication to mission and new ways of manifesting Christian community.

Both our weekly Community Meal Program and our active Anti-Racism Committee have risen to the occasion and become a witness to the Gospel mandate of hospitality and justice. We gather in different ways, and we minister in different ways, but the light of Christ shines bright in this current darkness.