Dear Resurrection Family,

 

First and foremost, we the Vestry want to extend our best wishes to all of you who are navigating life and faith under these uncomfortable circumstances. We have received your responses from our parish questionnaire and combed through every single response as well as analyzed your collective voice.

 

On June 17th, Bishop Wright provided safety protocol directives for parishes to consider when deciding whether to regather, and to date only 5 parishes in the diocese have submitted plans for approval. Due to the recent COVID spike in Georgia, those five have since rescinded their plans.

Since providing protocols for regathering, Bishop Wright has also sent an email to parishes mentioning three significant changes:

Bishop Wright has urged parishes to consider these factors when considering in-person worship while we do all that we can to monitor numbers and support measures to decrease transmission.

Your responses to the questionnaire show that the majority of our parishioners are unwilling to reconvene in-person right now, and most are willing to comply with safety protocols when we do regather: 28.6% responded with "wait quite a while" and 28.6% responded with "wait several weeks," which totals 57.2% wanting to wait. 42.9% said they are willing to return immediately with safety protocols. Therefore, the Vestry has decided to continue our recorded Sunday worship services for the month of July and reevaluate in August.

 

Just like the bishop, we acknowledge the void that many are feeling in being away from one another, our sanctuaries, and the sacraments. However, Georgia is currently number eight in the country for COVID-19 infections. We want you to know that we hear your concerns and frustrations, and we wrestle with these complications as well. In-person worship and Eucharist are what we desire and what we look forward to. 

 

The Vestry wants to begin offering more opportunities for building community connections through our Participation and Formation teams. We want to create more points of personal connection during the week. The Vestry will be encouraging you to join our "Resurrection Cares" Zoom meeting that will be scheduled for Wednesday evenings - details to follow. The Vestry has also been working on a fall plan to re-gather our community in different ways. In next week's e-newsletter, we will provide opportunities for August participation and formation, and of course recorded worship will continue to be available. Please continue to reach out to us and know that we value all your voices.

 

Faithfully,

 

Resurrection Vestry - Joe Cash, Ringo McCollum, Christina Ernst, Katie Hardy, Emily Nonnemaker, Marika Csatary, Denise Dorsey, Mary Geidel

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons.

Told in Dinah's voice, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of the mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past.

Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's lives.

For July 2020