This week the Session of St. Mark made two significant decisions. First, the Session has adopted a Faithful Phasing framework for how we plan to approach the question of when and how to resume in-person worship together. This framework is an attempt to bring as many of the overarching concerns and related logistical questions that we face together in a coherent way and yet to remain flexible as more insight into COVID-19 and our community health becomes available.
There are two things I want to communicate initially about this framework.
1. We have not yet set a date for in-person worship. Please note that. The decision for when and how we resume in person worship falls to the Session – not the Pastor, not the Presbytery, not the PCUSA General Assembly, but also not the Mayor, County Supervisors, Governor, or President. Until the Session makes that decision, our worship will be strictly online. If you are unable to access our worship, please call the church office and we will enable you to do so.
2. Our process for making the decision about in-person worship will begin with our Health Ministries Commission. We have asked the Health Ministries Commission – staffed by Pastor Hayes Noble, Parish Nurse Beth Schwarz, and Parish Counselor Gretchen Carrillo – to stay apprised of all of the best practices and latest studies regarding community health, in order to guide this decision in a safe and reasonable manner. And, while the Commission will initiate the discussion, the ultimate decision will fall to the Session.
I know that many of you are missing one another and missing participation in an act of worship each week that means so much to your life, your faith, your family, and your church community. Me too. We are doing our best to stay connected through Zoom meetings, online worship, occasional drive-by greetings, and social media – and it’s not the same. But, in a week when the death toll in the US passed 100,000 we continue to be in the worst health crisis that many of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. So, we pray for wisdom for our leadership in our decision-making, we pray for patience with the process, we pray for those who are grieving losses, we pray for those who put themselves in harm’s way each day in order to offer care, and we pray that – even in these strange times – God’s will is done on earth as in heaven.
In the meantime, we continue to be the church! As important as our in-person, gathered worship experiences are to us, our identity as a church has always been much larger than that. And that leads me to the second decision that your elders made this week. The Session has agreed to add $100,000 to our missional giving for this year, specifically supporting COVID-19 related organizations and other ministries that have been affected by the pandemic. Following the initiation of our Finance Commission and the work of the Mission Commission, the Elders were able to make this decision because you have been incredibly generous. Our finances are strong because of you. We are able to reach into our reserve funds and give extraordinarily because of you. You are being the church by serving the most vulnerable. Even at a time when many churches are feeling the crunch financially, your generosity has allowed your leadership to do something extraordinary. Well done, Finance Commission! Well done, Mission Commission! Well done, Elders! Well done, St. Mark!
Jesus once said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Christians have been trying to revise that statement for years, arguing that we need to get our hearts in a good place then we can attend to putting our treasure to work for compassion and justice. But, I like to think that Jesus knew exactly what he was talking about. So, if someone asks you whether or not St. Mark is “open,” I invite you to respond this way: “Our hearts are open. Our hands are open. Our lives are open. Our community is open. Yes, we are open; we’re just not worshiping in-person yet.”
Mark, proudly of St. Mark
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