I again have a handful of things to highlight: Bishop’s visitation, virtual communion, reader signup, and a few notes on in-person. Read on for all the exciting news!
First off, I’m pleased to announce that our bishop, the Rt. Rev. Craig W. Loya, is making an official visitation to St. Luke’s on Sunday, October 25.
Visiting faith communities to preach, lead worship, and get to know the community is a huge part of a bishop’s job. Bishop Craig is working to visit the communities that haven’t had a visitation recently. I think the last official visitation we had from the bishop was at our Celebration of New Ministry service in April 2018 (I don’t know the last time the bishop visited on a Sunday), so he’s coming to see us!
The bishop will preach and share in the leadership of our virtual Eucharist. After worship, he’ll say a few words of introduction at coffee hour and then stick around for questions, conversation, and perhaps a few rounds of Stump the Bishop. He really enjoys these visitations and is looking forward to meeting everyone and getting to know St. Luke’s.
Secondly, I received notes of gratitude from so many of you for last Sunday’s virtual communion service. Communion is something many of us have been missing during the pandemic and are happy to have again, even if it’s virtual. We’ll continue to celebrate this service of virtual communion until we’re able to gather again on Sunday mornings in a real way. Links to the bulletin and the service are in the note below.
One request: If you’d like to read on a Sunday morning, please click here to sign up. Each Sunday we’ll need three readers: the Hebrew scripture lesson, the Psalm, and the Epistle. Thanks for stepping up!
Third, communion is such an important part of who we are as Christian people, that I want to make sure everyone has access to the sacrament. If you’re having trouble making it on Sunday mornings or Wednesday afternoons, I’d love to come to your house and celebrate communion with you. I’ve done this a few times in recent weeks and it’s always been powerful to share Eucharist at home with a small group. If you’d like me to come to you with communion, please reach out to me.
Finally, we’ve bumped the Wednesday in-person Eucharist back to 5:30 to make it a little more accessible. That time doesn’t work for everyone so, again, please get in touch if you have a suggestion for another time to gather or if you’d like a personal visit from me. We’re making this church-in-pandemic thing up as we go, so I’m always open to ideas about what else we could do to stay connected. Okay, that should do it for this week. I hope you find time to enjoy the beautiful weather!
Blessings,
Justin
St. Luke's Episcopal Church 