Almighty God our Heavenly Father, graciously comfort your people amid the uncertainty facing us
in the COVID19/Coronavirus contagion. Mercifully attend to those who are sick, bless those who
seek a vaccine and cure, bless our Church and civic leaders as they seek to guide us, and fill our
hearts with confidence that, though at times we may be afraid, we may still put our trust in you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dear All Saints,
As I have been informing you over this last week, in order to ensure safety and to be able to keep All Saints' doors open for those who feel safe coming to church during this worldwide health crisis, the church will be following a variety of temporary changes beginning this Sunday, March 15th. As reported in the All Saints eNewsletter this week, we will be implementing these changes to follow the directives of our Bishop. We will discontinue the use of the Common Chalice of wine during Holy Communion, and we will also continue the encouragement of using alternative forms of greetings for offering the Peace, as well as for collecting the offering. And, as started last Sunday, there will continue to be hand sanitizing stations at the entrance to the church and at the back of the pews, along with antibacterial soap in our public restrooms.
One change I forgot to acknowledge which the Bishop has also directed is that churches refrain from coffee hours and receptions before and after church services, as well as avoiding buffet lines for any food service on church property. Because of this directive,
we will be stopping All Saints' Breakfast service until further notice, beginning this Sunday
.
Breakfast at All Saints has been a much loved tradition and a tremendous gift to the parish for many years. I want to assure you, as soon as we come out of this health crisis, we will bring breakfast back to our Sunday morning time together.
For right now, Sunday School offerings will remain available for adults and children, with the appropriate social distancing encouraged. And, of course, we will have coffee freely available in the Parish Hall during the Christian Formation Hour.
Finally and most importantly, for those who are not sick and who want to be here, we will continue to gather together as a Christian family to pray, worship, and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ at 8am & at 10:30am on Sunday mornings at All Saints. If you are feeling sick or are just too worried or concerned to feel comfortable attending church, that is totally okay. Sermons preached on Sundays will continue to be available online, and the clergy and church staff will be working on other ways to make online worship available.
To read the letter from Bishop Howard, click
here
. To see the eNewsletter article from this past Thursday, March 12th, click
here
.
