What’s New and What’s Next
Well it has been a long time since we have been together. Our last in person service was March 8th, and it has been 18 weeks of Zoom and YouTube liturgies that have been exciting, challenging, dysfunctional, beautiful and everything in between.
Over the past 18 weeks we have also done a lot of other things. We raised 15k dollars to purchase iPads for the Chaplains in the Lifebridge hospital system so they could safely pray with COVID patients and help them connect to their families and friends outside the hospital. We delivered food and PPE supplies to 75 neighbors in Druid Heights in conjunction with St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church. We’ve collected and donated LOTS of food and soap and masks and dollars to Samaritan Community to keep their clients healthy, fed and housed. Many of you have signed up to deliver boxes of food and other supplies to clients. We also raised almost 10k dollars for BlackWomenBuild - and are in the process of developing a stronger partnership between BWB, Saint Katherine’s and Memorial.
We continue to listen for prophetic voices - even in this time of isolation. From Rachel’s call to challenge the gender and identity of God, to Natalie’s call to divest of the Legacy of Slavery that is in our past in order to welcome members of every color and nation as full members of Memorial and of the Body of Christ. We have decided to take down our historic plaques and commission the Triptych in order to explore commissioning a new piece of art for the Sanctuary.
We have also been there pastorally for each other in a most challenging and unique time. From phone calls to book studies to zoom coffee hours, to our Daily Devotionals and online Lectio Divina. We have gotten to know our E-Seminarian Rachel Johnson and helped prepare yet another person for a lifetime of ministry in God’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We’ve welcomed another intern, Karen Mercer, to carry us through the Summer and Fall, and continue to support Carolyn Armstrong on her path to Ordination.
We’ve also had to say goodbye to two dear people, Louise Miller and Matthew Fenton III, and we mourn greatly that we still have not been able to gather as we should to say goodbye to them. We continue to pray for Nancy in her grief and Matt and his family in his, and we long for the day when we can commend them both to the glorious company of the Saints in Light.
It has been a journey. And I have been grateful to walk it with each and every one of you.
So.... now what?
Unfortunately it does not look like COVID-19 is going away any time soon, and the actions and inactions of local, state and federal leadership means that we are one of the few developed nations in the world that has an out of control epidemic and no good path to returning to regular in person worship, or any broader sense of normalcy anytime soon. Scripture has much to say about plagues and how they befall sinful and prideful people, and while I don’t believe that God made COVID to punish us, It is certainly true that our nations pride, arrogance, stubbornness and unwillingness to care for our neighbor has resulted in this particular plague being worse here than almost anywhere else. Because of this, with the advice of both the vestry and the worship committee, Memorial will not begin in-person worship this summer. We are going to submit an application to the Diocese for outdoor worship so that, if circumstances change, we can gather a few times in late summer/early fall but for the most part all of our worship will be online for the foreseeable future.
However, the worship committee is working on a large pastoral initiative to make sure everyone who would like to receive communion this summer will be able to. Details are still being worked out, but we will train a large group of LEMs to deliver the sacrament in a safe, socially distant manner with little to no risk for either party. It won’t be ideal, but it will be something.
In addition, because we will be worshipping online for the foreseeable future, we are also announcing a few staffing changes. As we say goodbye to our E-Seminarian, Rachel, we recognize we will need more support. This week Derek Olsen has begun as our part-time Parish Administrator. Derek has a PhD in New Testament studies and has worked and taught in IT for 20 years; he is quite literally the perfect person to help prepare us for a more online life. Derek is the spouse of The Rev. Meredith Olsen, who will be our clergy supply in August while I am on vacation. This will allow Hannah to transition back to doing community engagement and youth programming full time, which wil be a whole new world with a largely online existence in the fall. Finally we are renewing our Deacon Associate agreement with Natalie so she will continue to be with us for the foreseeable future. Justine continues as music minister and is developing a whole new set of technological skills to make it work, I am grateful for her leadership and care for the Music program. Additionally, we have entered into an agreement with a new organist, Brian Edwards, who is an extremely talented Organist from the Caribbean who has just moved to Baltimore. Brian will be recording preludes and postludes, as well as I hope conducting the occasional socially distanced Organ Concert from the Sanctuary.
Having the summer to plan for the new reality of digital church in the fall will allow us to improve the quality and variety of our worship offerings, and hopefully begin to expand our reach and impact as well. None of this is, of course, ideal. But there is no other group of people I’d rather be on this journey with than you all.
