After church yesterday, we had a gathering on Zoom of some of the newcomers to Faith to help make some connections. It’s always been a challenge to help folks make connections with each other – it’s especially hard during a pandemic!
But we are beginning to see the light of a new day! Many of us are beginning to venture more and more outside and in communion with others thanks to the advances with vaccines and other safety measures.
One colleague has said that we will begin to gather in person again (Faith will add weekly outdoor in-person worship services on May 2), but “When we return, we will all be newcomers!”
This is both exciting and a challenge. This is both a time of opportunity and a time of grief. We are looking forward to gathering in person – but at the same time, some parts of our gathering will be different. We will still need to be socially distant and wear masks. We won’t be sitting in our customary pews. When coffee hour returns, it will certainly look different.
What an opportunity to gain appreciation for church life as a newcomer! If it’s been a long time since we were newcomers ourselves, it’s sometimes hard to see church life through a newcomer’s eyes, but when we return, we will all be newcomers. We will be thrown off a bit; we will see our traditions in a new way; we might not recognize some faces behind masks; we will probably be asked to sign in and we’ll wonder why; we might not know whether or not we should shake hands or fist bump or elbow knock or none of the above.
But…at some point we will settle ourselves into prayer, the worship service will begin, and we will hear the words, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Grace. Love. Communion. For us all.
Thanks be to God.
In Christ,
Pastor Jen