Dear St. Margaret’s Family,
I write to you this first day of September praying that all is well for you and yours.
REOPENING UPDATE:
In a previous letter, I wrote that we are trying to discern the appropriate time to reopen the church for in-person worship. I had hoped for the middle of this month, but, after polling many people, most believe that reopening this month would be premature – and most said that they personally would not attend at this point in time.
There are definitely some in the parish who would feel safe coming back, and I am deeply grateful for their patience.
Our primary goal now is to commence live-streaming Sunday worship from the St. Margaret’s sanctuary. We are in the process of finding the best platform for this. We are researching several options.
And, please know that there are several of us who are ready, willing and able to help you if you have difficulty with the internet. Just call me, text or email and we will have someone help you.
The Morning Prayer service would include Mo. Laura and I, two readers, and Julius, our organist, so that we can have music even though there is no singing.
For the time being, the service will be only virtual with no congregation present except the readers. The video will be available for access anytime on our Website, on Facebook and on YouTube. Please do pray for the successful launching of this project.
BUILDING AND GROUNDS:
Please do come over to the church and walk the grounds. They are truly beautiful thanks to the ongoing dedication of Mack West, Kathy Leber, Greg & Nancy Cygan and Ken Schaffner. Many thanks to Maggie Werner for all her helpful input.
OUTREACH:
Please know that the Vestry and Outreach Team are keeping up with these ministries during this difficult time. The Vestry voted to allocate funds to various organizations since March. Jen Burkhardt and her team have been working on these projects. More details to follow.
COMMUNICATION:
Please remember to go to our website (stmargaretsemmaus.org) to see updates and the Weekly Reflection Letter online. Also, if you have suggestions for content or photos, please let me know. I am grateful to our Webmaster, Jessica Stubits for her work on this. Also, see our FaceBook page.
ALSO: All are invited to the weekly Monday night Bible Study at 7:00 PM. Simply contact me if you’d like to join in so I can send you the Zoom link.
The Weekly Wednesday Noon Day Prayers are a wonderful way to stay in touch. Mo. Laura does an awesome reflection on the saint of the day. We have many parishioners who participate as well as folks from other local churches and folks from California, Alabama and Florida! The wonders of Zoom. Again if you’re interested, please just contact me and I’ll send the Zoom Link to you.
Please remember the Diocesan Webpage (Diobeth.org) for other news around the diocese. A listing of all the current virtual worship in the diocese are listed there.
Stay well, stay safe, stay patient, stay HOPEFUL! Surely God is in the midst of us!
Blessings, my friends,
Jane+
Well said. We’re all on part-time attendance here as well. In fact, when my son died unexpectedly a few weeks ago, we had to give up the idea of a funeral as such and instead had a private commital of ashes in the church memorial garden (we would have done that anyway – Van’s ashes are also buried there). It was very lovely, with only six or so family members and a few close friends to witness the occasion. As I’m sure you would agree, we are ALL ready to get back to normal . . . certainly that happy day will come while we’re all still here!!!!!! But it was certainly a comfort to us when Andy died to have that option, and it worked just fine. Hang in there, my friend. I do enjoy our correspondence!!!!!!! Caroline