“I’m not going to turn my parishioners into, you know, proverbial canaries in the coal mine. It’s just not worth it,” said [the Rev. Tim] Schenck.
There have been several items in the news this week about Episcopal churches stepping up to help in any way they can during the pandemic. Here is a small sampling of those efforts.
From Vermont, a parish which has expanded its homeless ministry:
With the pandemic came an opportunity.
The Rev. Earl Kooperkamp and the people of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre had been working to help homeless people in Washington County for more than a […]
“My mother has been dead for many years. I took her presence in my dreams to be a commentary on the death that stalks us through this new plague, and on the comfort of the promises of reconciliation, of the persistence of life and love beyond death’s borders, the rolling away of the stones it casts at us.”
Faith leaders, Episcopal and otherwise, have been far less enthusiastic this week about the prospects of returning to business as usual. That has been especially true in Georgia, following the governor’s announcement that businesses would be allowed to open over the course of the next several days. From our friends at ENS:
The prospect of physically gathering in church for a worship service would have been unthinkable for most Episcopal congregations just a month ago, after the escalating coronavirus […]
A press release from the Association of Anglican Musicians “strongly urges AAM members to follow all directives as set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) for slowing the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing and self- quarantining are appropriate and will necessitate the alteration of plans for rehearsals, performances, and liturgies.”
The Association President, Marty Wheeler Burnett, noted that the statement was necessary because
some members report being required to work in settings where CDC guidelines are […]
Our friends at ENS report on efforts by several large parishes in different parts of the country to respond to COVID-19 outbreak.
The West Coast was an early flashpoint in the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. “It sort of came on fast here in Seattle,” said the Rev. Doyt Conn Jr., rector of Epiphany Episcopal Church. As of March 17, at least 56 people had died in Seattle and King County, Washington, more than a third of […]
“It is important to emphasize that suspension of in-person gatherings is not a suspension of worship. I very much encourage and support online worship.”
“Abstaining from communion was the single best Lenten experience of my life. I discovered that I could be fed by the Word and other elements of worship. During this period, I discovered God’s abundant grace and love not in the bread or wine but in other simple ways—a hymn, the sermon, and even in the exchange of a smile with a member of the congregation. My Easter experience was made extraordinary through my Lenten practice. I truly came to appreciate worship in all its diversity in the Episcopal Church.”
In the last two weeks, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is changing the way Episcopal churches worship. The common cup, the Peace, coffee hour, baptismal fonts, the offering plates, etc.
“We are part of the human family of God. Jesus came to show us that his way of love is the way of life. It’s God’s human family.
We are in a time when remembering that may be important for all of us.
We are in this together.
What affects some directly affects all indirectly.
We are part of a family. The human family of God.”
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