COVID Updates- January 2nd & 9th
The current data regarding the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid Pandemic is devastating for exhausted health care workers, unvaccinated children, and the vulnerable of every age group. This week’s number of cases in Delaware County is over 1,000, as high as it was when we were practicing our faith together fully distanced. We have shown our community to be thoughtful, respectful, trustworthy, and cautious, again and again for these two years. Thank you for all of the patience and love and steadfastness you have shown.
I am grieved to ask us to refrain again, but also confident that it is the best course of action. I am asking that we approach the next two weeks like we are in a snowstorm. If you don’t need to come, please do not. The analogy is that while you may have all-wheel drive (full vaccination and a mask), you can still contribute to accidents, and the fewer people on the road, the better.
For Sunday January 2 and 9 we will:
- Have only one Eucharist service, the streamed service at 10.15am. (NO 8am)
- Ask that the only attendees are those needed to offer the service and those who have no access to stream online. We will trust that these persons are fully vaccinated.
- That all persons who are present wear the best possible masks: N95,KN95, KF94, or a surgical mask/cloth mask with a N95 insert, or double masking with surgical and cloth. We have a hearty supply.
- Communion distribution for those watching online will take place after service outside at the rear Nave red doors.
The offices will remain open as they have been, however, we ask that all guests mask inside the building. Individual meetings and ministries are asked to carefully discern how best to meet and we are glad to help with Zoom setups as needed.
Take good care of yourself and others like the infant Jesus is in our arms. If you don’t have a high quality mask and would like one, we have enough to share. Take the time to reach out to community friends and strangers who, just like you, are trudging through these storms. I hope you finish out the Christmas season by tuning in and praying together across time and space. This would be a good week to try the Epiphanal house blessing that was included in our seasonal devotional book (and here). Let us pray and act with courage, may we gather in our hearts with each other, with travelers, wise ones, and all the saints as we summon the patience to continue to do these best but hard things in the name of Love.
A New Year’s Prayer from the Corrymeela community:
God of this new year,
God of our ongoing story:
we pray for all those
who enter this year with anxiety,
with exhaustion,
with grief.
We pray for ourselves.
And we pray
that this may be a year
of restoration:
of lives filled
with new purpose,
and renewed hope,
so that instead of praying
for something to end,
we discover again
the joy of beginnings.
Amen.
In the name of Love,
The Rev’d Jane Gober
Rector