March 17, 2020
Dear Celtic Cross Family,
The session met Sunday, March 15, and made a plan for the church for the next month. Naturally, the plan is based on the best information that we have at this time and is subject to change as new information, recommendations, and directives from the government occur.
Here is a summary of the plan to date, however, please note that this is a plan and subject to change:
- No worship until at least Sunday, Sunday, April 12th (Easter Sunday). This includes Good Friday Services at the church. It is our hope and prayer that we will be together to celebrate Easter.
- All church activities are cancelled until at least April 6th.
- In an effort to maintain our strong community connections, the session, deacons and I are developing methods to connect regularly with the members and friends of the church.
- As of today, no outside groups will be allowed to use the building. We know how important meetings are to people in recovery and had hoped that they could continue to use the building, however because of government recommendations we had to restrict the building use.
- Unfortunately, we will not be able to host the warming shelter.
- A decision was made to continue to pay staff, at least, through April 15th.
Over the last few days, we have been working to prepare the business aspects of the church to operate with minimal onsite presence. The Office Administrator and I will, primarily, be working remotely. Most of the church files are available from the cloud and we can access the voice mail remotely. The work of the church will continue. Pastor visits will be shifting to phone calls or, for those interested iPhone users, possibly face time. Please feel free to call or text the Pastor, I will get back with you as soon as I can. Later this week, I will be exploring ways for us to connect with each other and with God.
Electronic communication will be our primary source of mass communication, with snail mail used for those without email. Please share any church communication with church friends that don’t have email, as there will be a delay in their getting information. Prayer requests can be emailed or texted to me. With any prayer request, please let me know if it is confidential or can be shared with the church. If it is not specifically stated I will assume it is confidential. While you can leave confidential prayer requests on my cell phone, please do not leave any confidential prayer requests on the church voice mail.
During this unsettling time, let us be faithful and vigilant in our prayer for those nations, communities, families, and individuals most affected by this outbreak, and for the medical personnel and government officials seeking to respond. Let us resist and reject fear and suspicion based on ethnicity or nationality; this virus is affecting people of all races and ages. Let us be generous in supporting organizations that provide assistance and support public health in our area and around the world. Above all, let us remember and rejoice that “nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Brief Statement of Faith; Rom. 8:38–39).
Grace and Peace,
Rev Ruthanne Herrington
