3/31/2022

3/31/2022

Dear Friends in Christ,

A colleague recently posted something on the Diocal Episcopalians Facebook page that spoke to what I believe it means to be Church. It was a quote attributed to Michael Carl that read,

As church attendance numbers fade across the nation and online services become very convenient it's important to remember why church attendance for you and your family matters so much.

You can't serve from your sofa. You can't have community of faith on your sofa. You can't experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa.

Christians aren't consumers. We are contributors. We don't watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We pray by laying hands on the hurting. We do life together.

The church needs you. And you need the church. -Michael Carl

I think this is a good description of why we need church, and why the Church is needed (which are slightly different things), and I believe it to be true. And yet even as my heart recognizes the assurance of this statement, I wonder what it means for people who for one reason or another, cannot get to church physically. Those whose health or age or frailty makes it difficult, if not impossible, to leave their home for any reason. Those who are unwilling to expose themselves to even a small risk of Covid and still cautious about attending church in person. Those whose lives make it an extraordinary effort to get to church in person and are glad they can show up online.

Over the past two years the ability to gather remotely has been quite literally a life saver for the church. It has ensured its continuing existence and viability by offering a means to gather as community when it was not possible to gather in person. And while most of us might agree that remote worship is less satisfying than in-person, this quotation suggests that it is also less faithful, and I don’t agree with that. I am not okay with judging people’s individual choices made for reasons known only to them, especially in such extraordinary times.

Times have changed, and hybrid worship is here to stay, and I rejoice in this fact. Because there have always been people who couldn’t make it to church in person, faithful people who have been committed churchgoers all their lives and who pre-pandemic found themselves at the end of those lives increasingly disconnected from the community that is so important to them and which they so faithfully served over the years. Online church means no one need ever feel disconnected and excluded from their community. This is something to embrace and celebrate, not shame or blame.

So while Carl’s last paragraph rings true for me - we aren't consumers; we are contributors; we don't just watch; we do engage, give, sacrifice and encourage and generally do life together, I wonder if a better approach would be to reflect on what it means to be part of a community post-pandemic in a hybrid world. Ponder how we engage from our homes. Contemplate how we serve from our sofas. The Holy Spirit moves where she wills and how she chooses. Her power is not only found in the midst of

a worshipping community, but in our homes and our communities, and most importantly, in our hearts, and in our souls. Thanks be to God!

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+