Dear People of St. Luke's,
We just received word from our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Russell Kendrick, that we are to suspend face-to-face gatherings here at St. Luke's Church for at least the next three weeks in response to the Covid-19 virus..
This is a strange and difficult adjustment for us to make. After all, face-to-face gatherings are typically the life-blood of our common life together as a church. But as yesterday's Gospel reminds us, God offers us Living Water no matter the strange and difficult situations we may encounter.
No matter how much this virus may disrupt our lives, God's Living Water is always there for us, "gushing up to eternal life." We may need to open our hearts and minds to it in new ways. But it's there for us. And it will be there for us even if we cannot meet face to face.
Already, our church leadership is prepping for all sorts of ways for our community to pray together and uphold one another in the coming weeks.
And we're going to need your help!
Below, I describe our plans thus far--please read it all thoroughly and reply to this email and let us know if you'd like to help with any of these ministries or if you have an other creative ideas for us to try.
We will continue to offer our regular services and adult ed classes in on-line form at their regularly scheduled times LIVE through our Facebook page at:
- Sundays, 7:30 am - Morning Prayer, Rite 1, with full Sermon by Jamie or John Talbert
- Sundays, 8:45 am - Adult Education Hour, on The Last Week, by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, led by Jamie and John
- Sundays, 10 am - Morning Prayer, Rite 2, with full Sermon by Jamie or John, as well as music led by John and our Organist/Choir Director, Trey Lemley
- Wednesdays, 12 Noon - Mid-day Prayers, with Litany for Healing and Homily by Jamie or John
- Wednesdays, 6 pm - History of the Eucharist class, led by Jamie
- Thursdays, 12 Noon - Soul of Scripture Class: The Devil & Dostoevsky, led by Jamie
- We also plan to offer Morning Prayer services at 8 am and Evening Prayer services at 7 pm led by a rotation of parishioners live from their homes also through our Facebook page. If you'd like to join that rotation, please reply to this email and let us know!
You will be able to comment and ask questions in real time during Facebook Live events, so it is my hope that we can make these services and classes as interactive as possible.
If you are unfamiliar with Facebook, or if you experience any difficulty accessing our content through Facebook, please contact the church office and we will help you troubleshoot.
- We also plan to implement a Care & Prayer Phone Tree. Our hope is to have volunteers who agree to call a handful of their fellow parishioners every week so as to check in and see how they're doing, pray with them and help them to know and feel that they are loved and valued members of our community. If you'd like to volunteer to join the St. Luke's Care & Prayer Phone Tree, please reply to this email!
Our Parish Administrator, Wendy Wheeler and I will continue to keep regular business hours, Monday thru Thursday, 8 am - 3 pm, as well as Sundays, 7 am - 2 pm. And I will continue to be on call night and day. But the office and church will be closed to visitors.
Keep in mind our contact info and please reach out to us for any reason:
Church office phone: 251-666-2990
Jamie's cell phone: 769-230-7250 (can also receive texts)
- We welcome your phone calls, texts and emails and will respond to all reach-outs as best we can. Hospitals have begun restricting all visitors, so I will not be making in-person hospital visits for the time being, but I want to pray with and for anyone who finds themselves in the hospital for any reason--either over the phone or through Facetime.
- We encourage you to stay current on your pledges of financial support during this time. You can do so remotely via PayPal, Venmo, by mailing a check or by calling the church office and giving payment info over the phone. Even though our doors will be closed, the work of the church will continue and our bills must be paid.
- All St. Luke's Serves events have been postponed for the time being. Our hope is that we can pick up all that very important work once again as soon as it is deemed safe for us to return to holding our regular face-to-face events.
This is a strange and difficult time, to be sure. But the Living Water of God will sustain us through it. And we will continue to see and know the love of Christ shining through one another in all that we do.
Wishing you all health and peace,
Jamie
