A Reopening Update
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey on relaxing Covid restrictions last week. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet, the survey is attached HERE. Please fill it out at your earliest convenience and email your responses to me or drop the survey off at the church office.
Survey
results indicate:
· Masks: Some still are more comfortable wearing masks.
· Distancing: Some prefer a section where physical distancing is maintained.
·
Communion Bread: Some prefer to
bring their own bread.
· Communion Wine: Some prefer to receive wine from individual cups or will receive bread only.
Based
on survey results and CDC guidelines, our current status is this:
·
8:00 services resume this Sunday (except for
the first Sunday of the month when there is one service at 9:00.
·
There is no longer a limit on the
number of people in attendance, so everyone can attend together!
·
There is no longer a need to sign up to attend
services in person.
I have taken down the sign-up page.
·
Masks are optional for all who are fully
vaccinated,
but you are always welcome to wear a mask.
·
If you are not fully vaccinated please
wear a mask at all times, as recommended by the CDC.
·
The first four pews in front of the lectern will
be reserved for those who prefer physical distancing (this will
also help us give a clear view of the lectern during Prayers of the People for
those on Zoom or Facebook). Closed seating will be indicate by the round
yellow signs that say, “Please choose another seat.” Please wear a mask if you
choose to sit in this section, and graciously find a seat elsewhere if you are
comfortable sitting closer together.
· The 9:00 and 10:00 services will continue to be live streamed on Zoom and Facebook. 8:00 services will not be recorded.
I misspoke last Sunday when I invited people who are not feeling well to wear a mask. You are always welcome to wear a mask, but please, if you are not feeling well, stay at home and join us on Zoom or Facebook.
We need more ushers, particularly as our guidelines change. Please let me know if you are willing to be an usher. It is a straightforward ministry, gives you the opportunity to greet everyone at the door and only requires welcoming and directing new-ish people to seats and handing out bulletins. As things continue to change there may also be a need to tell people about changes.
Building Update
We have hired a painter (Linda
Williams) to paint the ramp into the Prince Room where there was water damage
this fall, and to scrape, caulk and paint the exterior of all the windows
(except the back of the parish hall which was done by our volunteer crew last
summer). Knowing that she can do this work in the next few weeks allowed us to
schedule our carpet installation, which will be the week of August 9. After the
carpet is laid and deep cleaning accomplished we will unload the Mi-Box
container and bring all the furniture back into the building. We plan to reopen
the building to outside groups in September.
We have two funerals at the church on July 10, and would love to have some help working on the gardens. If you can help one morning next week please let Patti Rau know.
Vacation
I will be on vacation from Monday,
June 28 – Wednesday, July 7. If you have a pastoral emergency while I am away, please contact Patti Rau at geopat96@roadrunner.com or
603-367-8223.
Blessings, Caroline
The remaining Sundays at 10:00 AM
This Sunday-June 27th
5th Sunday after Pentecost
at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.
JOIN US FOLLOWING THE SERVICE FOR
A TIME OF CONVERSATION.
The Collect
Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Lesson 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
In our Hebrew scripture reading the report of Israel’s devastating defeat by the Philistines at Mount Gilboa is brought to David at Zik-lag. Saul and his three sons have been slain, including Jonathan. David might have been expected to show relief at the death of Saul, who had so relentlessly hunted him, but instead David grieves both publicly and privately. Israel has lost her king and finest prince to war, and David, who served Saul so long and loved Jonathan, is bereft. David’s elegy was likely set to music, extolling Saul’s heroism, Jonathan’s might in battle, and the profound national and personal loss embodied in their deaths.
Psalm 130
A plea for mercy offered in patient hope to the faithful Lord.
The Second Lesson 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
In this New Testament lesson the apostle Paul encourages the Corinthians to be generous in their contributions to a collection he has been gathering for the relief of the church in Jerusalem. It seems the Corinthians had begun to raise money for this cause in the previous year but have not completed to project despite the means available to them. In sharing from their abundance with those in need, these new disciples will be following in the way of the Lord Jesus who, though rich, became poor that the Corinthians might become rich.
The Gospel Mark 5:21-43
The gospel tells of the healings of a woman with hemorrhages and of the daughter of Jairus, an official of the local synagogue. Here are two remarkable stories of healing, one told within the other. As Jesus is responding to Jairus’s plea for his sick daughter a woman who has suffered with hemorrhage for twelve years reaches out in faith, and is healed and given new life. By the time Jesus reaches Jairus’s house, the twelve-year-old daughter is seemingly dead, but Jesus raises her to new life.
For all those who working with COVID patients, vaccinations and vaccines.
Updating the Prayer List
Please let Deb know when a person can be removed from the prayer list. Thank you.
(from
The Salt Project)
This
is a week early, but I’m on vacation next week…
THE NEW COLOSSUS," BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
~ Emma Lazarus
This new colossus, Lazarus insists, is “not like” the Greek
Colossus, domineering and male, which in the third century BCE stood at the
harbor of the island of Rhodes, like some conquering warrior and guardian. No,
this statue holds a beacon in her hand, signaling nothing less than “world-wide
welcome.” Her name is “Mother of Exiles.” She is unarmed, a light in one hand
and a votive tablet in the other. Such tablets were common in ancient Greece
for inscribing prayers, or in any case aspirations — and on this particular
tablet is the date the United States formally broke from English rule: July 4,
1776. It’s as if she says, We aspire to be free — now come, all you who
yearn for freedom.
She is herself the personification of freedom, of course,
the Roman goddess Libertas. But compare her with Eugène Delacroix’s 1830
painting, Liberty Leading the People, in which Libertas
carries a battle flag and gun. No, this version of Libertas is an image of
peace and hospitality. This isn’t the old colossus, but rather a new one: far
from keeping people out, Lady Liberty, that “mighty woman with a torch, whose
flame / Is the imprisoned lightning,” is welcoming us in.
Happy Fourth, everyone!
The SALT Team
16 Tina Quinn
