From the Rector: Full Calendar Ahead!

Dear Friends,

If you aren't a regular reader of the full E-pistle, I suggest you read this week. It's that time of year, when things change, launch, and move about (amplified by continued Covid- pivoting, building project ponderings, and general church evolution). Let me highlight a few things for you:

8AM Service Experiment: From September 18 - October 30 we will be bringing the 8AM service back. This service will be quiet, intimate, and likely much smaller than the 10AM. It will not be live-streamed, so attendees won't be caught on video, and it will not have music. Most Sundays we will celebrate the Eucharist with a possible occasional Morning Prayer (followed by optional Communion from the reserved Sacrament). If the 8AM is well-attended (by a dozen or so folks) during this 7-week trial period, and if we have readers and ushers, we will continue through the remainder of the year and onward! Spread the word!

Masks! We know that church is likely one of the only places you go where masks have remained mandatory indoors since 2020. Our regathering committee met on Monday to discuss shifting to an optional masking mode, and as they prepared to meet, the Diocese sent out new Covid Guidelines which were very much in-line with the direction we were leaning. I encourage you to scroll down to read St. Paul's Regathering committee's Statement. After Labor Day (and thus after this Sunday) masks will be optional in all St. Paul's spaces.

Program Year Launch: Please watch our calendar and read the blurbs below (this week and in the coming couple weeks) about our Fall offerings! These programs are planned and facilitated by Katy and a few others, but their success depends on you knowing they are happening, plugging them into your calendars, and being there for one another. Thank you for taking a moment to add a couple things into your calendar each month with one another's need for community in mind and heart.

Building Design: While I could write chapters on the conversations, research, and decisions we've engaged in the past two years (and particularly in the past six months) about our buildings, there will be time for more info sharing soon. What I want to say to you this week is that as we launch into this program year, I am aware that this is the year that we will be endeavoring to design new spaces and new ways to use our property. We will want as many voices in the room as possible. The more you know (about building projects in your secular life and about this particular conversation in our shared life) the more helpful your input will be. If the evolution of our buildings, the ways we will change or use them, and the stewardship of our assets and time are of interest to you, do stay in the conversation by reading this newsletter and being involved in the community conversations as we begin to schedule them this Fall.

I am so aware of how hard it is to stay up to date with all of the things all of your various communities are doing (God knows I have the darndest time even keeping up with my kids' school newsletters), so, thank you for the ways in which you "read, mark, and inwardly digest" our communications and thus support the ministries and advancements of St. Paul's!

Yours in Christ,