Our monthly worship theme for April is “Liberation.” I’ve been thinking this past month about how much our church has transformed to meet the needs of our current moment. I’ve been reflecting on how we are now liberated from barriers that seemed present before this pandemic, and how costly liberation is. In particular I’ve been thinking with tenderness of all of you on the board who have gone beyond to ensure that our church remains available and vital during this pandemic: meeting weekly instead of monthly, performing, running sound, running video, purchasing and testing new technology, reaching out to members, exercising patience from home with tasks that were once simpler and comprehensible, keeping an eye to our financial well being, and the list could go on. I am in awe of all of you, many of you who are also working other jobs, and dealing with the daily onslaught of fear and not knowing. As I write this we have yet to hit our “peak” in terms of the highest number of deaths in our state, and I am becoming increasingly aware of how much our ministry together during this predicament must be viewed as a marathon not a sprint.

We are experimenting in bold and creative ways. Worship has been incredibly received by membership, friends, and newcomers. I receive e-mails from people I’ve never met who now tune in, and feel our services are life savers during this time, spiritually speaking. We are continuing to grow and get better, with both video and sound, and I anticipate we will continue to grow in quality and reliability. We are regularly using Facebook and our website to post events which are now happening daily. We have more opportunities for connection now than before this pandemic, which is truly incredible. Within a couple weeks, members have stepped up to facilitate events, and this has made quite a positive difference for our community.

I recommend we as a church, including our leadership, pay special attention to those who are grieving during this time. There have been many losses: loss of jobs, at least one member that is losing a close relative to COVID-19, loss of normalcy (especially for families with children), and sadly the list goes on. I don’t think many of us have quite registered what we are experiencing or feeling fully, and I think it is likely this month we will need to make sure people recognize that we as a community are here to support them through whatever they are feeling.

This is a destabilizing time, which is both exciting and exhausting. I am proud of our leadership in recognizing the opportunity of this moment, and feeding our collective excitement of what is possible for us. The lessons we are learning now especially in regard to technology will only benefit us going forward regardless of what happens in our world. But I also want to name that this kind of rapid change can be exhausting, and we need to lean on each other. I say this as someone who has a hard time doing that, but it is necessary, especially as the timeline for this shelter in place mandate is indefinite at this point. We need to develop a culture with our leadership where people feel comfortable saying they need to slow down, take a breather, or simply take time to name what they’re feeling. We are in an exciting moment, and we all are working so hard. Let’s make sure we are working smart, which means keeping tabs on our emotional and spiritual well being. This doesn’t need to be touchy feely or weird, just honest. We will weather better as a community if we encourage and practice honesty about what we’re feeling and how we’re coping, or struggling to cope. So we should check in – in our meetings and outside our meetings with one another. As someone who is driven and appreciates productivity, I need this reminder too.

We have transformed our church in less than a month – for many churches two centuries is not enough time to transform it. So we should celebrate and be grateful for this. We have managed to have a thriving, completely virtual church with stimulating worship and ministry opportunities every single day. We now have a virtual Director of Religious Education, and we’ve navigated having Sarah, our Office Assistant working remotely. We are utilizing our website and social media to feed our current membership and attract new members, all while serving the pastoral needs of a diverse set of individuals. But all this is not simply a miracle. It all happened because of your leadership – so thank you, stay well, and know we are still in this together.