Whatever, I'm in.

Good morning and happy Thursday. It's my blog, and no commitment to publish churchy stuff except Sunday, Monday & Wednesday, but something's on my mind to say.

The Covid19 deal is permanent, it's going to be with us from now on, as the flu is and we have to get a flu shot every fall. In my Time, we had to get a smallpox vaccination, and a polio vaccination, and a diphtheria shot, and recently a pneumonia shot, and there was tuberculosis, and I don't remember what all. Those diseases were a scourge, frightening us and killing people. I especially remember the nightmare polio epidemic when I was a boy, it was terrible, polio killing children including a 9-year-old boy who was the first cousin of my next door neighbor, and breaking hearts. Our parents were afraid to let us go outside and play. Eventually humans conquer these things and they become a sad and bitter part of our history; but with Covid19 I think vaccines and cures will happen later rather than sooner, and I think we're going to be gun shy about this for a long time to come. Months, maybe years. Maybe lifetime for some of us, and we may be uneasy about venturing out or mingling with crowds, even with friends and neighbors, from now on.  

There's already the hope an epidemiologist expressed, that our germ-ridden handshake will never resume. I can see that. You have no idea where my hand was before I reached out to grasp yours warmly! 

Church, church is changing too. Noticeably, changes that we may not welcome any more than those of us who remember it welcomed the changes and the change process a couple generations ago when our Book of Common Prayer was revised! Sacred words were changed, words, expressions, ways of communicating and communing with our God. Some of us left and went elsewhere, I myself did for a while. Some left and never returned. Others welcomed the new words and liturgies and the theologies they reflected - - even I came around in kairos, God's time not mine! And now with Covid-19 here we are with changes even more drastic than revising the Prayer Book!! 

• bursts of breath, especially from crowds, have been proven to spread covid-19, so no choirs or congregational singing? No standing and reciting the Nicene Creed in unison? No longer say the Lord's Prayer aloud together? The post-Communion prayer? Confession of Sin? IDK.
• And touching that's such a warm part of being human: no touching at The Peace? No greeting the priest at the door and saying "Wow what a great sermon!"?
• Reversion to Roman and pre-Reformation era practice of Communion with Bread only? Safely spaced worshipers in lines to communion stations, as we see the Roman Catholics doing in televised Mass?
• More church services with fewer people? 
• What about the warm sense of welcome and love and fellowship and friendship that pervades our parishes? 
• Restrictions laid down by civil authorities on how many people can assemble, including at church on Sunday mornings.
• Church by live-streaming online instead of personal attendance.

In my view, changes will not be temporary and short-term but permanent, our new way of being church together. I'm not going to fall away because it's different now and still changing, and I'm inviting everyone, especially people my age who may think us old folks don't accommodate well to major change, to welcome and embrace what we must change because, loving each other, we want to do everything possible to help keep each other safe and well. I mean to welcome what has to change and not fight it, I mean to be happy and glad about it all, I mean to see that welcoming these changes is our sensible opportunity to go on together. I mean never to be depressed or discouraged, but to embrace innovation as part of loving and protecting each other. 

One way or other, I hope you won't stop coming to church because it's new and different. If you don't feel comfortable and safe coming out to join us in person, join us online, you'll be just as much part of us that way. Church will be live-streaming very likely permanently, both because covid19 isn't going away and because we're finding out that we reach more people by streaming. 

Knowing everything is different now and will be different going forward, I've been uneasy about all this and afraid everything would collapse. But I had those fears after the storm too, and I was wrong: what I'm experiencing is that everything is turning out better than ever. For this new chapter of church, I've decided to welcome it as new opportunities, a New Reformation, and to be part of it and help make it work. As with post-Hurricane Michael recovering, we'll make everything even better than it was before. That may not seem likely now, but I believe it will happen. New worship styles. New ways of showing lovingkindness. New ways of doing church, liturgy, being with God and each other. We can do it. We have great leadership in our local community, and in our church, diocese and parish. I've decided, and I'm determined, and I invite and welcome you to be part of it with me. 

All of our roadside church signs used to read, and some still do, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You". Invites you. Welcomes you. Loves you. We still do and always will.

   T fer Tom