Dear Grace Church Community, I have consulted the diocese guidance on in person worship and, after prayerful consideration, it would be prudent for our community to temporarily close our in person worship going forward. This choice has not come easy to me. After looking at the COVD-19 cases rise in our state of Connecticut and seeing the numbers rise in my work as hospital chaplain, I am concerned about our community. And due to the cold weather, we can’t have outside worship at this time. We should look for other ways of worshiping together, such as having our worship on-line (remote), posting sermons on social media, having live streams through social media, and providing pastoral care via telephone, zoom, or google meets. We have already postponed our visit with Bishop Laura Ahrens until Palm Sunday due to these safety concerns. Looking for alternatives is the safest option. We can hold on to hope that we will be back worshiping together soon because of the release of the COVD-19 vaccines. I think we have done wonderful work dealing with our countries pandemic to this date. We have had outside worship, we have tried on inside worship and had communion safely. Yet, with the COVD-19 numbers rising, our health and safety is very important to me. If any members of the community got sick due to us continuing to have in person worship, I would be heartbroken as your pastor that I did not care properly for our community.Sunday, January 3 will be our last in person worship until further notice. I hope and pray that we will be back to in-person worship soon.
