Beginning an interim ministry

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Time of pandemic

Martin Luther, writing during the Bubonic plague of the 1500’s, seemed to be talking directly to us today.

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I will fumigate, purify the air, administer medicine, and take medicine. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order to not become contaminated, and thus perchance inflict and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely. This is a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy, and does not tempt God.”

Nostalgia and Hopes

At our monthly diocesan interim’s meeting, some of the conversation prompted me to observe how things that we remember as the “way things used to be”, things which may appear to be nostalgia, are really hopes and longing. Longing, perhaps, not for what was but for what might be.

September Sunday schedule

For September we will move gingerly in the direction of expanding our scheduling. I have decided to build on the scaffold of a Sunday worship schedule that we used in August. For August we had a mix of 2 services, at 8 and 10, and 1 service at 10. For September we will plan to have 2 services each of the Sundays.

In August there was a mix of Morning Prayer and Eucharist. I learned in conversations these past weeks that there is a history at St. Paul’s of regular, even daily, morning prayer. It’s a part of what seems so strong about this faith community. We ought not lose that tradition.

Nevertheless, we will plan, at least for September, to have Eucharist at both times. My hope is not so much to respond to nostalgia as to meet some legitimate longings and hopes.

  1. Sunday worship at an early morning time
  2. Eucharist that is contemplative in tone and theme

I have told the altar guild that I could celebrate the Eucharist if at least 1 person volunteers to read and assist at the altar. There will be somewhat more tasks for the altar guild, but it should be possible to schedule that flexibly.

I have thought that there are other concerns we might one day try to meet with our worship schedules. Things such as:

  1. Healing service
  2. Evening service, e.g. Sunday or Saturday, or perhaps weekday
  3. Taizé style service

The opening words of one of the major documents of Vatican 2 still inspire me:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts…


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