Dear People of God at St. Benedict’s,
Yesterday morning my routine changed! Instead of putting on my Sunday shoes and rushing to print my sermon before we record worship, like we’ve been doing every Thursday, I met up with Monty, Scott, and Valerie in the nave to practice using St. Benedict’s new livestreaming equipment. Sunday morning you’ll see it in use; we’ll be coming to you LIVE from St. B’s at 10:30 on YouTube (not Facebook). This is a huge and important step towards moving back indoors for worship, and so I want to tell you where we’re at!
The big, exciting headline: May 23, Pentecost, is our first Sunday back indoors together! Beginning on that day, we will be back inside at St. B’s every Sunday at 10:30. You can get a sneak preview if you join us at 7:00 pm on Thursday, May 13 to celebrate Ascension Day in the nave. You can register for upcoming worship services here.
There will be some differences as we move indoors: it’s important for folks to preregister, we can have up to 75 people distanced by pod, we’ll all need to mask up, Valerie and friends will lead beautiful sacred music but we can’t sing all together yet, and Holy Communion will still be in one kind (bread). How we move around and how we sit will be a little new. But these are temporary adjustments, and I hope that the joy of worshiping God together in our sacred space will more than exceed our longings for “normal.”
I know we’re all at different places in our comfort levels with being indoors together. In order to have a way for everyone to worship comfortably, we will continue to offer outdoor church: at 2:00 pm on May 23 and 30, and then moving to 8:30 am beginning June 6. We've been having church on the blacktop at St. B's weekly since January 10. If you haven’t been to “outside church” yet, I urge you to give it a try. We’re able to sing together, share Holy Eucharist, and worship in the beauty of creation.
You’ll hear more from our parish Regathering Task Force this week about the details. For now, rejoice that we are moving one step closer to return! I cannot wait to stand at that beautiful altar and praise God with you all in person. I am grateful for the hard work of so many in getting us to this moment. To God be the glory, and I hope to see you on Pentecost!
Yours in Christ,
Mo. Jenna+
PS If you haven't signed up yet for one of our Meet the Rector events, I hope you will! We had our first one last Sunday and it was delightful to visit and get to know each other a bit. I got to meet some folks whose faces I'd only seen on Zoom and some I hadn't connected with yet at all. They're all outdoors, super casual and come-and-go as you can. There's one coming up this Monday evening at church-- join us!
