Rector's Reflections: Journey through the Pandemic

Dear Friends,

Our journey through this pandemic is anything but a straight line. If we had any doubts about this, the Delta and Lambda variants have driven the point home. As I watch what these variants are doing and listen closely to the work of the scientists and medical professionals, I understand that we need to buckle down on masking indoors and keeping one another safe.

I also understand how deeply we need quality time with one another, and how demoralizing the persistence of this pandemic era has been. While our wardens, vestry, regathering committee and I work to discern what in-person gatherings could look like in the Fall, and lean toward worshipping in the sanctuary once again, and while we plan how to regather in general, we also eagerly await the availability of the vaccine for the children.

If the vaccine is already available to you and you have not yet gotten it (and have not been told by your doctor that the vaccine is not safe for you), I urge you to consider getting vaccinated to help protect the vulnerable, stop the spread of the virus (and the ability of the virus to continue mutating into increasingly contagious and resistant variants), keep yourself safe, and move us toward a place where we can safely come back together in less inhibited ways.

The trust and hope we put in the vaccine is not a political stance. Encouraging vaccination is how we live into our belief that we are not individual islands unto ourselves; rather, we are the body of Christ, one interconnected body of love with many individual beloved members.

As the body of Christ, we do hope to re-start in-person church activities in the Fall, just as we hope to move into the pews, safely and soon! We also wish to continue being a place where community groups can come; that said, we will navigate the fuller return of our St. Paul's gatherings first, and then invite rental groups back in. This whole process will require much patience and creativity, and on behalf of the vestry, wardens, regatherers and myself, I thank you for the patience and creativity you have already been offering for these past 17 months!

In a vestry gathering this week in which three members of our vestry and delegation shared their faith journeys, and then again in the Thursday morning coffee chat, I found myself immersed in the sacred stories of the members of this beloved community. It is those stories, your stories, and the space we have created to share them, that gives me faith in our ability to continue to walk this path together.

Yours in Christ,