This Week at St. Paul's
- Mother Michelle Walker
Dear St. Paul's Family,
One of the components we included in the Tech(nology) grant was the purchase of two 10" tablets. The intention was to download our Sunday services to the tablets and then share them with our parishioners that have no internet access (and who are unable to come to church once we regather). I'm pleased to share that we deployed them on June 7th and after a bit of a learning curve we are having pretty good success. So far the two tablets have been shared with three different households. Before and after each use the devices are carefully cleaned to ensure they are as germ-free as possible.
This is already a wonderful ministry. The recipients have enjoyed the services. Several were especially delighted when I added a few extra videos from John's organ recordings! I'm extremely thankful to Sandra Provan who has been helping with the delivery, the retrieval, and the cleansing of the devices. Not only does it allow our parishioners to enjoy the service but it also gives them/us another point of contact. I'm also happy to say that because of this ministry we were able to discover the assisted living facilities are beginning to allow visitations IF you schedule ahead of time and are willing to sit outside, socially-distanced, and with a mask. Sandra and I visited someone on Friday afternoon this way. It was delightful.
If you know of anyone who would like to be included in sharing the tablets please let me know. Everything is loaded locally so no internet/wifi is needed. We are thrilled to be able to provide this ministry.
In other news, the vestry voted last evening to regather for in-person services beginning July 5th. The first week will be morning prayer. Subsequent weeks we intend to offer Eucharistic services. The graph below demonstrates the NEW COVID-19 cases for LaPorte county, which have declined to under 5 and seem to be remaining there. Praise God! A comprehensive Regathering Plan was developed by our Regathering Team (Mother Michelle, Sandra Provan, Tom Konieczny) and submitted to our vestry for review. With the vestry's approval last night the plan will be submitted to the Bishop for approval, at which point we are eligible to regather! (Please remember, should the cases begin to climb again, we will have to stop in-person services until that normalizes. I hope this does NOT happen!)
Regathering IS exciting! And everyone who is healthy enough to feel safe being out in public (and has no signs of illness) is welcome to attend, even if you're 65+ years old. Because we delayed until July there are no age restrictions. Although everyone is welcome, we are also perfectly happy for you to continue worshiping from home via our live stream, which we intend to continue indefinitely. Do NOT feel pressured to come to church. Feel welcome to come when it's appropriate for your health and life circumstances. And when you do come, BRING YOUR MASK and be prepared for social distancing! (We will have a few masks available if you've forgotten yours.)
Our Regathering Team also met yesterday and walked through the nave reviewing seating. There is a diagram below the COVID chart giving you an idea of how we will handle seating. Once we are at our seating capacity, we won't be able to let anyone else in. We will likely implement a simple registration system to help be prepared for our attendees and to hopefully reduce the possibility of having to turn anyone away. It's all going to feel rather awkward for a while, no doubt. We will happily change our plans along the way as necessary. We are excited to be taking these steps.
In our Bible study on Thursday mornings we are making our way through Corinthians. Thursday morning we studied Chapter 9 and talked about the rights the Apostles had to live and earn a living. In past weeks we've talked about some of the interesting things the early Christians had to do, or NOT do, in order to be faithful. I bet they never had to measure distances from the center aisle with a 6' long stick. Or insist people wear masks. Or remind people to stay away from each other. May our efforts at regathering provide us with the safest and most hospital environment we can provide during these odd days.
And don't forget ... if you'd like a prayer or some time to chat, give me a call and meet me at the benches! Have a wonderful day.
Blessings!
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org| 219-575-0226
LaPorte County COVID-19 NEW Cases, by day. The blue line represents actual numbers while the red line is a rolling 5-day average. As long as our daily cases stay at or under 5 we are good for regathering.
Forgiving my rudimentary design skills, this picture depicts the seating availability for people coming to church on or after July 5th.
Green pews are available for seating and will either accommodate one person or a couple from the same household.
Attendees will need to stay 6' from other attendees not of their household and, of course, wear masks.
You'll see that if everyone comes as an individual, we can only seat 21 or so people. Our full capacity during this time is around 28.
Please be advised, your regular pew may NOT be available for seating! (That's a bit of church humor in case you missed it!)