My Dear People of St. Thomas,
From our places of isolation, in the COVID-19 world, it’s hard to believe it is already April 23rd. We have not worshiped together in the physical building since the Second Wednesday in Lent, March 11th. In ways of pure ingenuity, we have banded together in spite of a virus! We waved palm branches, and built and stripped altars, and washed hands, and sat at empty tombs, and witnessed the Risen Christ in ways we never imagined possible.
And yet. And yet. And yet.
We are still left at that same “so what” place (always my big theological moment). What do we do with all this “Good News” that we’ve witnessed, year after year, even in new ways, that we continue to find? Because, after all, in the aftermath of resurrection, we’re still walking that same 7-mile stretch to Emmaus, wondering “What’s just happened,” and “What the heck are we supposed to do with all this?”
And that is only amplified in the post-COVID-19 world!
My focus in the beginning days of this pandemic have been to keep us huddled together (connected) in the ways that we can, through (hopefully) meaningful virtual worship and contact. I believe we have established patterns of both these things, especially thanks to Vestry members Joe DeuPree and Kathy Carson, who have vitalized the Preservation Ministry, making touchpoints to all our members.
It is now time to begin thinking about our “reaches,” both inward, and outward. How do we “do” effective in-reach and outreach in the post-COVID-19 world. How do we manifest the radical, Risen Jesus Christ within our midst and beyond, into the world around us? There are no easy answers to these questions, but I am starting to ask the questions of myself, our St. Thomas leadership, and of you. Because if, as we learned last Sunday, the Risen Christ is in fact all around us, we’ve got a lot of work to get after, both because of and in spite of COVID-19.
There is one thing, though, of which I am certain. Christ is risen, and there is no going back. We cannot return to the way things were, pre-COVID-19. That world no longer exists. We are already different people. But on our journey, we will continue to encounter our Risen Savior, to know an ever-fuller joy that we can only today begin to glimpse, and strain into for tomorrow!
Yours faithfully,
Fr. Christopher+
