PLANS FOR Sunday School OCTOBER 4, 2020
Welcome, happy morning!
Up early to finish preparations for church this morning and, while coffee is brewing, out on 7H porch looking straight up in the zenith at Mars and the Moon. Mars that bright red planet to the right of the Moon. Uranus to the left of the Moon but dim and invisible without binoculars or telescope and, not a man of heights, I didn't care or dare to lean out over the rail far enough to search high in the sky.
We are at the point of discussing what the church's Resurrection Body may look like as we open to new and challenging if still risky life in the face of the ongoing covid19 pandemic.
First, I'm going to explain what we have in mind at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church for our adult Sunday School class: Sunday School will resume on Sunday, October 4, 2020. Let's plan to meet in the Library as before (for a starter instead of the Pavilion because in the Library there are no constant distractions such as cars driving by and planes flying over and people walking by and birds tweeting and animals chasing through). I'll set up the tables and chairs in the Library so people are widely spaced (couples sitting together of course).
In old normal, our adult Sunday School class had twenty or twenty-one folks present as usual attendance, but I'm thinking there may be six or nine to twelve at most, and I can easily set up tables and chairs for safe accommodation of that many. We'll meet the same time as before: 9:15 to 10:15 Sunday mornings. In the Library we'll have the air conditioning on, and also one of the three outside doors open to let fresh air in from outside. There's a sink in the room, so I'll plan to have a Keurig coffee machine there. Facemasks? I don't know: I'm thinking let's wear facemasks as we come and go and greet each other arriving and departing, but let's take them off if we want to during our class conversations sitting down at the table, what do you think?
Next, I ask that you give a lot of thought to all this.
Then in a couple of weeks (my target will be Sunday, September 20), I'll ask that you respond, telling me (without regarding it as a commitment) whether you think you may, or may not, feel comfortable coming to class in person. Of course, George has moved to Gainesville, and Jackie has moved to Key West.
Most in the class are in the sixty-plus age range high-risk category, and may not feel comfortable and safe about returning, and that's fine. I urge anyone who doesn't feel safe coming out, to stay safely at home. But maybe a few folks would like to come, assured that we'll make it as safe as can be.
As a possibility, Father Steve says he may be able to hook us up in the Library, such that we can have a streamed online class like we've been doing for the Sunday 10:30 church service, maybe an arrangement so everyone can see each other and we can converse openly. That would be great. If possible, I hope it'll be comfortable for group discussion and less awkward than the one-talk-at-a-time ZOOM meetings I've been involved in with church Staff on Monday mornings and with the Bishop on Wednesday afternoons - - which've reminded me of single-sideband telephone conversations on Navy ships at sea half a century ago - - I say my piece and conclude "over" to signal the operator to flip the switch - - you respond and conclude "over" to signal - - clumsily back and forth, &c! Anyway, during September we'll be working on that idea of streaming online, and I'll keep you posted.
This comes with my love. It also comes as "chapter one" for today. This is my Sunday in the pulpit, therefore, as usual, I'll post my sermon here on +Time, linked on Facebook, as soon as the 10:30 service ends. The sermon may be odd (IDK, no more odd than my usual), but the sermon will be "chapter two" for today and will constitute our "Sunday School lesson". I will welcome your comments.
In that regard, I did not allow my old +Time blog to become a general public forum with all the ugliness that can devolve into! But I'm on a long Revelation-style Interlude after nearly ten years of using +Time as a personal device, and I DO welcome our using it as a discussion forum for our adult Sunday School class if class members want to comment.
All for now.
Tom+
Sun rising on my morning walk around Harbour Village park, 6:33 AM Monday, Aug 31, 2020. Gulls, pelicans and ospreys were circling high above but I didn't snap them.