Dear <<First Name>>,

It is with great sadness—and also an abundance of Easter hope—that I share with you this second Pastoral Message with regard to the Coronavirus pandemic and our own response as a congregation.

The three bishops responsible for the four dioceses of the Episcopal Church in Michigan have jointly issued a Pastoral Directive in response to this growing pandemic. That Pastoral Directive is available online here.

We are a church led by bishops and governed by synods (conferences of clergy and laity together). A Pastoral Directive is a distinct authority given to a bishop to give an order that must be obeyed by all those under that bishop's jurisdiction. As someone who has made vows to my bishop, it is incumbent upon me to ensure our parish follows this directive. As a Baptized Christian, it is also my responsibility (indeed, it is the responsibility of all of us) to "seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself." In the time of a pandemic, that means making the choices that are best for my neighbor—even if they may be painful for me personally. Indeed, I know this is painful for many of us as the Eucharistic community is at the heart of our shared life. However, we must walk through this pain—bear our cross, so to speak—in order to limit the spread of this disease among the most vulnerable among us.  

We have been directed by our bishop to cease all Sunday, Saturday, and weekday in person gatherings for the next eight weeks, or until May 10th. This includes both Holy Week and Easter. Tonight at 8:00pm I had a Zoom conference with members of the Vestry and Ministry Staff to make plans given this new directive. Here is what we have all determined. 

Effective immediately, all remaining scheduled worship services that were to be live-streamed from the church with a small group of ministers are hereby cancelled. This includes the Wednesday noon service of Holy Eucharist & Healing. Instead of those previously planned options, our congregation will offer a variety of opportunities for worship and formation on our parish YouTube Channel, available online at: www.tinyurl.com/SJEonline. I encourage you to bookmark that link as you will find it helpful to remaining connected in the weeks ahead. 

• Every day, Monday through Thursday, at 12:30pm, I will offer a livestream of noonday prayer with a reflection upon the Gospel appointed for the day in the Office. You can access that on our YouTube channel. 
• On Sundays, I will offer Morning Prayer with a sermon, streaming live from my home, on our YouTube channel. I will retrieve vestments and other items from the church and seek to set this up in such a way that it truly is a worshipful experience in a space that is set apart for worship.
• I will also offer a simple Sung Compline service every Sunday night in Lent at 8:30pm on our YouTube channel.
• On Tuesdays, I will resume my weekly Bible Study as an online Zoom offering at 2pm. You may join that Bible Study at 2pm on Tuesdays online here. We will explore the lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday (which means you wind up helping me write my sermon!). 
• Additionally, our Director of Music, Nick Palmer, will begin putting together some regular musical offerings to supplement your worship on home. He will offer those on our YouTube channel. 
• When we arrive at Holy Week and Easter, Nick and I will work together to stream offerings for worship and prayer from our own homes. 

Our Latinx Missioner, Luis Valencia, will continue with the online offering of reflections on the Gospel and prayer on Facebook Live for our El Corazón page on Sundays at 12:45pm. Our Children & Youth Coordinator, Reyna Masko, will also continue sending opportunities for formation at home to our families. If you have not been getting her emails, contact Cindi Sanders to be added to that email group.

All other scheduled meetings and gatherings not already cancelled are also hereby cancelled. If you have not already, please feel free to contact me so I can setup a Zoom meeting for any gatherings or meetings you have that need to take place between now and the end of April. This means the 2020 Spring Fling is postponed until a later date that will be determined once these restrictions are able to be lifted. Additionally, the 2020 MESSIAH Sing-In is likewise postponed until a later ate when these restrictions can be lifted. 

The Parish Office is also hereby closed. Parish staff are invited to come as they need to retrieve items, but are encouraged to come and leave so as to avoid contact with one another. Our hourly staff will be invited to do the work they need to do at the church, both the sexton and bookkeeper's work does not involve interactions with others, but, rather, keeping the building maintained and/or the bills paid and offerings noted. If they do not maintain their normal hours, I have instructed them still to be paid their normal expected hours during this duration so they do not experience undue hardship from this decision.

For our parish outreach ministries, there will be the following changes:

• Our Loving Spoonfuls Meal Ministry will continue but with a strict "curbside only" system. That means that an extremely limited number of volunteers (no more than five) will prepare the food in our publicly licensed kitchen. (Meals prepared at home may not be served publicly, according to Ottawa County Health Department Guidelines). During our regular serving times on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings, a table will be setup outside the West Entrance and to-go containers with the hot meal for the day will be made available for pickup. Every effort will be made to avoid person-to-person contact so that the hungry may be fed while reducing risk for contagion. 
• Our Food Pantry will shift its hours to 4pm-6pm, Monday through Thursday. At 4pm, a table will be setup at the West Entrance with food and staples placed on it along with a sign inviting people to take what they need on an honor system. That setup will be done by the Parish Administrator. At 6pm, we are asking for a volunteer to come to move all food and staples to a different table inside the church so that it can be locked up overnight. If people are unable to come during those times, they will be invited to contact Cindi with a list of any needs they have. She will prefer a sealed bag with that person's name on it and set it out by the West Doors for people to pick up as needed. 

I also want you to know that our new CaringSJE group is still coming together and will continue its ministry. If you are healthy and able to leave your home to help with needs, you can contact Cindi to be added to that group. Similarly, if you find yourself in some sort of need, please contact Cindi so she can mobilize members from that group. We will help shop for those in our parish unable to leave their homes. We will take people to medical appointments. We will drop off hot meals for those who are struggling. We will be church to one another while taking every effort to avoid person-to-person contact (for example, leaving food or groceries on doorsteps, rather than carrying them into homes). Cindi has also created a list of all households in our parish with members older than 70 and the CaringSJE group will begin making weekly phone calls to those members, ensuring they are OK and asking if there is anything they need. 

Finally, as I said in my earlier message, these steps will have a significant impact upon our parish life over the next couple of months, maybe even more. The ministries we do—following Jesus, seeking to inspire through worship, and boldly loving all people—depend significantly upon the offerings we receive on Sundays. The Vestry and I would ask you to consider continuing your giving to support your church family as the restrictions we have put in place do not reduce the financial requirements we have as a congregation. However, I also want to be clear that if the changes over these recent days have put you in a difficult place financially, please know that our deepest desire i for you to provide for your own household before you consider supporting our congregation's ministry. That said, if you are blessed to still have your normal regular stream of income, you can always sign in to Realm to check on your pledge status, or, if you do not pledge, to make gifts to the General Fund of our parish. You can also make an online gift directly here. If you have the resources, any extra gifts you might give in March to make up for those financial gifts we will certainly lose due to these difficult decisions will be most appreciated. 

Finally, as I said in my last message, I would urge you, particularly during this time, to take full advantage of the resources of daily prayer that are available to you, either through the Forward Movement App (for Apple or Google devices) or through St. Bede's Breviary online.

We do not know for sure when this situation will change, but when it does, we will have a glorious celebration of Holy Eucharist, an amazing celebration as a family, and an offering of gratitude that the sacrifices we are making today will absolutely save lives. 

If you have questions about any of these items, please either email me or call my cell phone (616-295-5286) and I will do my best to answer.

Through Grace,