Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday we will celebrate our annual homecoming, a tradition that we and many other churches have maintained for decades. As members return from summer travels, or family vacations, or a slower pace of life, we make a point to mark our transition from one season to another and celebrate the opportunity to meet up once again with the routines and rituals that undergird our community life.

And yet, as we do this, we are mindful of the fact that this year’s “homecoming” is our second one in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has challenged our sense of community and our sense of coming “home” in every way imaginable. Even though we are now able to gather in person indoors, not all are comfortable doing so, and even for those who are, making conversation while wearing face masks and keeping distance takes a lot more effort. Some of us are just fine with this. For others, well, it’s just not the same.

In our Epistle reading for this week, we read from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians,

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Paul’s words have been particularly helpful to me and to our vestry as we imagine what it will mean for St. John’s to move forward as “one body” this fall and at the same time honor that we are made up of many parts, with different preferences, hopes, constraints, and abilities. We are now ready to share with you the plans that we have made for coming months, in hopes of maintaining our sense of unity as one body--whole and strong:

We will continue worshiping with one service at 10:00 a.m. until the end of November, at which time we will revisit our readiness to restore our former worship schedule including an 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. service. For now, worshiping as one body to include those who are in person and online makes the best sense until our attendance numbers can return to previous levels and more of our servers can be present to assist.

We will offer both in-person and online options for Faith Formation. Our Sunday Forum will meet in person in the Parish Hall at 9:00 a.m., face masks worn to ensure safety. In contrast, our Wednesday Evening programming will meet online at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Our EfM group will also be meeting via Zoom, and our Inquirer’s Class will strike a balance between in person and online sessions. We hope that by offering several options for different preferences, we will be able to maintain our connectedness and our sense that “we, though many” are one body.

We will continue to provide opportunities for in-person gatherings outdoors, such as our Homecoming Picnic, Parish Workdays, and Monthly Food Pantry Collections. Other community gatherings such as Ministry Team meetings, Book Clubs, Young Adults events, our RISC Social Justice initiative, and our Annual Parish retreat will offer multiple ways to connect--including options for meeting online or in person, indoors or outdoors, depending on weather and time of day.

We hope that by offering our congregation a variety of ways to be together this fall, each member of St. John’s will feel that they are a valued, important, and beloved part of our membership in the Body of Christ. In the words of the favorite hymn, “One bread, one body,”

And we, though many, throughout the Earth, we are one body in this one Lord.

Many the gifts, many the works, one in the Lord of all.

In Christ,

Amelie+