Pastor’s Corner: Changes

October 19, 2022

We believe that we are approaching some changes – again – to our worship service.

While plenty of the changes we’ve made over the last three years have been imposed on us by the pandemic and had to be made very quickly, we have chosen to respond to improving conditions cautiously and deliberately. More than once we have seen new infections rise, sometimes dramatically, just as we were on the verge of relaxing precautions.

At this moment, with COVID infection rates falling, we believe that we will pass that threshold that permits us to resume singing during worship in the next week. We plan to invite the congregation to sing on Sunday, October 30, during the special All Saints worship. What a day to begin, raising our voices to bless the saints who from their labors rest.

That’s if conditions continue to improve. COVID infections have fallen slowly since their peak in May. It took less than two months to rise that high; it has taken four and a half to return to this level. Most places in the United States have downward trends. Other places in the world, however, are experiencing much higher transmission of illness right now, including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

So we may not be able to sing every week, friends. If the illness counts rise, we’ll have to return to solos and duets accompanied by movement. That will be sad, but it will also be all right. We know that in this way we take care of one another.

Let us pray that vaccines, public health precautions, and our safe practices keep us healthy and well.

Blessings to you,

Pastor Eric