[Magdalen] Diocese decisions: "re-gathering"

[Scott Knitter]

Our parish has adhered to the Bishop's guidelines, so we're still staying
out of churches through the end of the month (Daily Offices on Zoom from
homes; Masses from the rectory on FB live stream featuring the rector and
his wife). A parish task force has been formed to help the rector decide
how to implement any process for reopening.

I noticed yesterday that one suburban parish is announcing Sunday service
in their church on May 24, based on the governor's guidelines. There's a
long email about it that conspicuously fails to mention anything about
diocesan guidelines. I wonder if they'll be hearing from the Bishop on this.

On Thu, May 14, 2020 at 3:48 PM cady soukup <cadyasoukup at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear ones,
>
> By virtue of being on the Culpeper Region, I have become a member of
> the Diocese of Virginia Elected and Appointed Leaders group. We have
> been directed to a documents to read regarding various recommendations
> for re-opening after a shut down, from the USA Centers for Disease
> Control (with a section devoted to communities of faith), to the
> Wisconsin Council of Churches, to a joint document created by the
> Bishops of the Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia Episcopal
> Dioceses, to Virginia Governor Northam's phase one business sector
> guidelines.
>
> The national Episcopal church, in the person of Presiding Bishop
> Michael Curry, has emphasized that we adhere to sensible guidelines in
> the name of love for each other. I have found his sermons and guidance
> to be joyful and heart-warming.
>
> Virginia is to move to phase one re-opening tomorrow, except for
> northern Virginia where the infection rate is not diminishing. As the
> register of our medium-sized country church (we are in the top 3 of
> the 10 churches in our region, which range in attendance from about 10
> people on Sundays to a high of over 200 people), we have vestry
> members who want to start attending church again so they can partake
> of the eucharistic feast.
>
> We have found in the Diocese of Virginia that virtual worship services
> (Facebook, Youtube, Zoom) are reaching a far larger group of people
> than physically attend church. The virtual worship services for our
> church, Trinity in little Washington, VA has attendees from FL, NC, CO
> - most of whom are one-time members who have moved away, but some of
> whom are unknown. Attendance has gone from roughly 80 people per
> Sunday to many more than that. The diocese is reluctant to give up
> this wonderful evangelical moment for in-person church services!
>
> Bishop Susan Goff warns us that our "re-gathering" together will be
> messy, must be deliberate and thoughtful, and will be approved
> church-by-church after churches provide their plans (under guidance by
> the diocese). The diocese is in the
> figuring-out-the-guidelines-for-phased-plans stage, which should take
> some time given the widely varied nature of our churches (from
> historic mountain missions to even older urban congregations).
>
> What are your churches doing? How do you envision moving forward?
>
> Pondering, learning, praying,
>
> Cady
> typing this in 'suburban' Boston, VA where the deer outnumber the people
>


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA