Good Evening and Blessings
Has it occurred to you during the past 15 months, what to keep during church services and what can be let go? Since we have been forced into change, does it really matter that we try different ways of doing church? I have often said that change is inevitable, and this pandemic has been a totally unexpected adjustment for us all. But we survive and we continue on filled with hope and Love.
Keep safe, Keep connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary
Reading Excerpt from “Voices Out of Lockdown” Jan Sutch Pickard (ed.)
Nobody Saw It Coming
by Liz Delafield
Nobody saw it coming.
It changed everything.
All those things that seemed important yesterday,
sitting in the “right” pew, what someone is wearing, children wandering and playing,
eating and drinking in the sanctuary
suddenly wasn’t.
We began to realise what was.
People,
keeping safe,
being happy,
little things like soap.
May we always remember
how it felt,
when the unimportant important things came crashing down.
Yet with them important important things.
Like …
a child’s hand, held in safety,
laughter of a game played together with friends,
a trip to the zoo,
lining up for soup and a bun following church service,
story time and reading books (in real life, not online),
walking with others and helping them grow,
saying goodbye with hugs and handshakes.
And when we emerge once again,
instead of going back to normal,
may we go ahead, remembering what we missed,
and what we didn’t.
Prayer
Spirit
lift us out of our limiting thoughts and open our minds to endless imagining. May we observe the positive gifts that we have experienced during social distancing. May we more deeply appreciate with Love our diverse faith family. We pray this in the name of the One whose teachings we follow.
Amen