[Magdalen] Diocese decisions: "re-gathering"

[Grace Cangialosi]

Thank you, Cady, for this good work!  The Bishop held a Zoom gathering this morning for the <ahem> older clergy in the diocese, since we will NOT be permitted to provide virtual worship from our church buildings during this first phase. She said she is getting pushback from the public about the orders, with such comments as “ Who gave you the right to tell me what to do?” Or even “ You have no
right to keep me from God.”
And she assured us that she has our backs in case we have any angry parishioners. I won’t, but it was good to have that reassurance. She has also put out a very detailed letter and video to be shared with congregations.

> On May 14, 2020, at 4:48 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