The View from Bolton Street
E-Church 5/17, Sixth Sunday of Easter
UPDATE: 9:30AM SUNDAY 5/17/2020
As of early this morning Zoom is 'down’ worldwide. As such, we will be streaming a video of our Sunday worship on the Memorial Facebook page and on YouTube. Please follow the links below to access worship this morning. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding.
A Note on Governor Hogan's COVID-19 Announcement
A NOTE ON GOVERNOR HOGAN’S COVID-19 ANNOUNCEMENT
Yesterday Governor Hogan announced the loosening of a few restrictions to the stay-at-home order, allowing some businesses and institutions (including churches) to re-open at 50% capacity. I wanted to let you know that the Clergy, Deacon, Wardens and Staff are aware and we have been in conversation with the Diocese about what the future looks like for the Episcopal Church in Maryland and for Memorial Church. We all deeply grieve not being together in person for worship, yet we recognize that as long as the virus is as widespread in Baltimore as it is today, it simply is too risky to gather inside, in person, in any form.
While we long to be together, I do not want it to be at the expense of anyone’s health. I want us all to be healthy and safe and worshipping together in the future.
So what DOES the Governor’s announcement mean for Memorial Church? What IS the plan?
First, Memorial is guided by the Bishop of Maryland, then the City of Baltimore and then the Governor’s guidance. Governor Hogan acknowledged that not all jurisdictions are ready to open up and a few (including Prince George’s, Montgomery and other counties) have already announced they will keep stay-at-home orders in place for the time being. Baltimore City and Baltimore County are likely to announce the same today.
Bishop Sutton and the Standing Committee of the Diocese are finalizing a phased plan for re-opening that will be parish and region specific. It is my expectation that the first phase may include limited outdoor worship and approval for small gatherings for weddings, funerals and baptisms as is appropriate.
Your vestry is meeting on Monday, May 18th to review the diocesan guidelines and to begin to plan for what this means to Memorial Church. We would like to invite you all to join us AFTER WORSHIP on May 24th for a VIRTUAL PARISH MEETING to discuss the path forward. I want to say now that we will not have all the answers by then, but hope to discuss as much as possible. We also don’t know all your questions. We are dealing with this seriously, prayerfully and mindful of what the science and the experts have to say. Please plan to join us.
A note on Choral Music: there is concern about spreading COVID-19 through communal singing. We and the Diocese are aware and are looking at the best possible medical and scientific guidance on what choir will look like when we gather back together. I don’t know what that will be, but at this point our ability to sing inside in a large group will be limited for some time. However, music and singing will continue to be a part of our common life, as it has been for Christians since the beginning, we just don’t quite know what that will look like yet.
In all cases, we remain a people of Faith and strive to be encouraged knowing that our Memorial Church will continue to gather and worship though virtually for the time being. Memorial will continue virtual worship through Pentecost and likely well into June, given the COVID-19 numbers in Baltimore. We are excited about how these services are developing and have some exciting things in the works for Pentecost and for the Sundays to follow.
Finally, a brief reflection on waiting. You might feel like the Psalmist these days, saying “How long, o Lord how long?” We don’t know exactly what the Psalmist was responding to in Psalm 13, but we do know that they felt forgotten, lost, scared and pursued by an invisible enemy. They also felt like God had left them behind. Our virtual worship, daily prayers and Lectio Divina reflections have been a helpful reminder of God’s love for us but I know you (as I have) feel like it is not quite the same. And in darker moments perhaps feel like the enemy is winning and wonder where God is. So let me remind you (and myself) that God’s hand is at work in myriad ways through this crisis. From the doctors and nurses working in ER’s and ICUs caring for patients, to the public health officials setting up contract tracing or managing information and access to PPE, to the researchers working in labs, to the grant writers and funders making resources available to better understand this strange and confounding virus, to the front line workers keeping us safe, keeping our streets and communities clean, keeping us fed, and clothed and connected, to the innovators creating new ways for people to work, worship, gather, recreate and play virtually, to the abundance of God’s green earth that allows us an outdoor playground to breathe fresh air, feel alive, and be healthy, happy and whole. In Psalm 13 the psalmist does not find their resolution in the solving of their problems or the destruction of their enemy — they find resolution in experiencing God’s Love: “ But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because the Lord has dealt bountifully with me.”
So let us continue to sing - through the safety of zoom - and rejoice in God’s never failing love for us through his Son our Savior Jesus Christ.
Liturgy and Living - Mondays at 12:30
This week, on Monday May 18th, we will hear from Rev. Grey: “I rode a bike across Israel so you don’t have to.”
Come join us on Monday May 18th from 12:30-1:00 as Rev. Grey shares his experience riding across Israel with Rabbi Daniel Burg and about 200 other Jewish riders. You might be surprised to know how much it taught Grey about peace, about justice, and about how the future looks a lot brighter in the Holy Land than you might think.
Topic: Liturgy and Living
Time: Mondays at 12:30 Eastern
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85282753173?pwd=WVA1NVhRYjk4U1R1enkyRW9MOW12QT09
Meeting ID: 852 8275 3173
Password: 009402
One tap mobile
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Dial by your location
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+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 852 8275 3173
Password: 009402
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdqWgBnFZA
EFM (Education for Ministry)
Education for Ministry (EfM) is now enrolling participants in its Baltimore-based groups. EfM offers a four-year course of study that reviews Christian Scripture, history, and theology and teaches a method to apply our Christian tradition to the experiences of our lives. The study is in a small group seminar, meeting weekly at the Diocese of Maryland, 4 East University Parkway, Baltimore. The cost is $375/year. Learn more at http://efm.sewanee.edu.
Morning Group: Meets Thursdays at 9 a.m. The next class will begin in September 2020*. Contact Stephanie Hull at stephaniehull@comcast.net or 410-462-1832 for more information.
Evening Group: Meets Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. The next class will begin in January 2021*. Contact Lisa Robey at lisarobey@gmail.com or 443-416-9007 for more information.
*Actual start dates depend on social distancing requirements.
E-Church 5/10, Fifth Sunday of Easter
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Topic: Sunday worship
Time: May 10, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89340584749?pwd=c1dubnhLV1JleHN5R1g2NWZYRndEdz09
Meeting ID: 893 4058 4749
Password: 356475
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,89340584749#,,1#,356475# US (Germantown)
+19292056099,,89340584749#,,1#,356475# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 893 4058 4749
Password: 356475
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbGx03uEzf
The View From Robert Street
“Back to Normal”
That is the question on many of your minds, I am sure. When will we be “Back to normal?” When will we back in the church, back to worship, back being active in the community. Back at coffee hour. Back to “Memorial Players”. When will we be BACK?
This is heightened by the joint announcement from the Bishops of Maryland, DC and Virginia about a four phase plan for re-opening, and perhaps some reports you all have read about singing (or not singing) together as a risk vector for spreading COVID-19. Let me say first that in a week or so the Vestry will host a town hall conversation for all of us about ‘next steps’ and invite everyone the opportunity to ask all the questions you need to ask about what the next phase of life will look like for Memorial.
But let me say a few things here. First, it is important to say that whatever changes come they will likely be slow, piecemeal, and that we are a long way from ‘regular’ worship gatherings like we used to. This is, I know, not easy to hear. I am very much grieving the lack of our common life together and wake up most days wishing THIS would all just go away. That grief is real for me and for you, particularly if you have a long history with the church or with our church. I wholeheartedly affirm your feelings about this; we are all walking together in that grief.
I am heartened, however by Paul’s words to the Phillipians, when he was practicing ‘social distancing’ (locked up in a Roman prison):
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Paul reminds us that God is at work in us. In Me! In you! Enabling us to do work for God’s pleasure.
Amidst all the uncertainty and lament - there is plenty of opportunity to do some interesting and wonderful things. Who would have ever thought of a ‘Virtual Mission Trip’ or ‘Virtual pilgrimage’, yet both of those are suddenly very possible! Suddenly we can bring in music from all over the Episcopal Church, we can invite preachers from across the country to preach with us. We can still serve as a valuable and significant voice in our community and in the larger community, especially if we engage our ‘Christian Imagination’ to do and be the Body of Christ in a physically distant virtually connected world.
So what can you imagine? What possibilities do you see?
E-Church 5/3, Fourth Sunday of Easter
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Topic: Sunday worship
Time: May 3, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86991255355?pwd=WTV3NmVzNHRHaVRyTEU1Q09nSjVwZz09
Meeting ID: 869 9125 5355
Password: 405789
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,86991255355#,,1#,405789# US (Germantown)
+19292056099,,86991255355#,,1#,405789# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 869 9125 5355
Password: 405789
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcVCAZJbsX
E-Friendship Hour
One thing we really miss right now is time with our youth. And one thing parents all need right now is a break. So have your kids join for a digital “Friendship Hour” Thursdays at 3 pm on Zoom! Follow the link below to join us!
Topic: Friendship hour
Join Zoom Meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/95092502765?pwd=bkJtNG1wbGtSU0lkZEI2bTM5MjlMUT09
Meeting ID: 950 9250 2765
Password: 010699
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Peace and Justice — Tuesdays at 8 am
Every Tuesday morning a group of faithful Christians gather to pray for peace and justice in our community, our city, and the world. You are welcome to join us any Tuesday at 8 am via zoom. You can join us by clicking on the link below.
Peace and Justice
Time: Tuesdays at 8:00 Eastern
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84721330457?pwd=RGpsV0crT09KMlVhYmpRSjFyOUdpdz09
Meeting ID: 847 2133 0457
Password: 487495
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,84721330457#,,1#,487495# US (Germantown)
+19292056099,,84721330457#,,1#,487495# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 847 2133 0457
Password: 487495
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kF7AOt7Rp
Below are the upcoming Saints and readings for the weeks to come.
Tuesday May 5 Martyrs of the Reformation
Tuesday May 12 Frances Perkins
Tuesday May 19 Dunstan of Canterbury
Tuesday May 26 Augustine of Canterbury
Tuesday June 2 Blandia and her Companions
Tuesday June 9 Columba
Liturgy and Living - Mondays at 12:30
On Monday May 4th, from 12:30-1:00 EDT and every Monday to follow, we will resume Liturgy and Living - now online! To kick off this weekly program, we will have a Q&A session with our e-Seminarian Rachel Johnson. Who is she? Where did she come from? What is her favorite ice cream flavor? Why is she Lutheran (and what does that mean anyway)? And any other burning questions you have for her! Come join other Memorialites for a casual Zoom conversation over lunch and get to know Rachel in the process.
Topic: Liturgy and Living
Time: Mondays at 12:30 Eastern
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85282753173?pwd=WVA1NVhRYjk4U1R1enkyRW9MOW12QT09
Meeting ID: 852 8275 3173
Password: 009402
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,85282753173#,,1#,009402# US (Germantown)
+19292056099,,85282753173#,,1#,009402# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 852 8275 3173
Password: 009402
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdqWgBnFZA