Dear Friends,
You may have read that the Governor has issued guidelines under which churches may begin to resume worship with in-person congregations. These new rules take effect on June 1st, but no Episcopal church in Delaware, including St Thomas’s, will be able to start that quickly. A task force of the Diocese is reviewing the guidelines (which are extensive and quite stringent) and working out how they might be implemented in the context of our style of worship. I anticipate that there will be additional steps, including diocesan review, that will be required of any church that decides to re-start worship “live” in its building. This will come to different parishes at different speeds. Please be assured that the leadership of St Thomas’s will act prudently in making decisions about how and when we may move in this direction.
In the meantime, we will continue to have YouTube worship on Sunday mornings and Wednesdays at noon. Deacon Cecily will also be offering the service of Compline one evening per week – look for more details on this to come soon. We continue to make improvements in our capacity to live-stream our services, and plan to continue doing this even when in-person worship resumes. We are very much aware that some in our community will be observing health precautions longer than others, and we do not want anyone to feel excluded.
I will close by letting you know about one other special event. On June 7, 2020, Trinity Sunday, there will not be the usual 9 a.m. Eucharist so that we can join with most other churches in the diocese in “attending” the Bishop’s on-line service. This sign of our unity will give us all a chance to hear from Bishop Brown and remind us that we share a common mission, even as we worship in living rooms and dens and kitchens all over the state.
Please be assured of my continuing prayers for you all.
Peace and be well,
Howie+
The Reverend Dr. Howell C. Sasser, Jr.
StThomassRector@googlegroups.com