The kindergarten students received their bibles.
The third grade students received their bibles.
The first communion candidates from last spring have been communed.
The confirmation students have been confirmed.
The Word of God has been preached.
The sacraments have been shared.
The dead have been buried.
The engaged have been married.
Worship of our God continues virtually and in-person.
The world continues to turn.
Life goes on.

It is November 1st in the year of our Lord 2020. And somehow dear friends we have survived. In the midst of polarizing politics that lead us to believe we must choose one side or the other, we have survived. In the hearing of painful stories of isolation and desperation, we have survived. In the moments of remembering what was and hoping for what will be, we have kept our sanity, even as we have been asked to help others keep theirs. We have lived through quarantines and rearranged schedules. As one mom emailed Pastor Tony and me, “Thank you for making special accommodations.” To which Pastor Tony and I replied, “Everything is a special accommodation right now.”

So the question I keep hearing is: What’s next?

Well, I have a few answers. We are currently planning to host outdoor worship on Nov. 1st and Nov. 8th at 9:30 a.m. – though Mother Nature has had a mind of her own in late October. And beginning Nov. 2, we will host an indoor worship service every Monday in November at 6 p.m. Thirty minutes with communion, sermon, and music and a hard cap of 60 in attendance. Then again, on Tuesdays in November at 12 p.m. noon, we will host another worship service of 30 minutes with communion, sermon, and music and a hard cap of 60 in attendance. We wanted to offer something more consistent than an every-other-Wednesday experience. You will need to pre-register and if we hit the cap and you walk-in – we will politely and graciously invite you to return home. Ben, Vicki, Pastor Tony and I have been talking, planning, and praying about how to move forward after outdoor worship has ended for the winter. Of course, we will continue our virtual worship service every Sunday morning at 8am. We believe it is a responsible, balanced, and faithful approach as we do our best to tend both the needs of our community and the health and safety of those who would choose to attend and those who are unable to attend. I know it is difficult to be away from Sunday worship with singing – many of us miss the opportunity to worship God as we did before the pandemic began. I know there are other churches who are offering full worship with singing outside the ELCA fold – I can only offer to you who are hungry for that experience – I am hungry too. I am also conscious of loving my neighbor in a way that both provides and protects to the best of my ability as Lead Pastor at Ascension. Believe me, it is a continuous topic of conversation in the hallways and offices and meetings we attend.

And in the effort of full transparency – December will not look much different from November. We have planned an outside Christmas Eve experience with candlelight and the Christmas Story and the singing of Silent Night (distanced at 10 feet apart) but that will be the entirety of what Christmas Eve will look like for an in-person worship experience. There will be virtual experiences for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but we simply cannot provide a safe way to offer Christmas Eve worship at three services in a sanctuary that does not exchange the air quickly enough in-between the services.

So what’s next?

A vaccine, I pray. Every day that is my prayer. I miss your voices lifted together in song in praise of our God. I miss the beauty of your smiles and the joy of children running up for Children’s Time during worship. I miss hearing about your lives – celebrations with family members and gatherings that renew your spirits. I miss people asking me to turn off the ceiling fans before worship begins. I miss running around before worship getting the acolytes dressed and ready to serve. Most especially, I miss you – my sisters and brothers in Christ. The Monday and Tuesday worship services and a few more outdoor worship services are a gift as you choose to attend as you are able – yet, we can all agree, it is simply not the same. Like I said, my prayer is for a vaccine. My other prayer is for patience and for a vision of hope to see the coming light at the end of the tunnel. Dear friends the light is coming. The light that will shine at the end of this pandemic. The light that shines in the eyes of seeing friends and family again for the first time. The light that shines from a manger filled with hay in the stable at Bethlehem. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. God’s promise is that the light still shines.

We have an annual meeting scheduled for Nov. 8. Even if we cancel outdoor worship for weather, we will meet in the sanctuary for the annual meeting to vote on a slate of council members and a 2021 budget. As I write this letter to you, the council has approved a proposed budget with a 4% decrease for 2021. We plan to advertise for a new Director of Youth Ministries in the winter months of the new year – but will invite a chosen candidate to begin June 1st – unless the pandemic comes to an end sooner.

Ministry continues. Mission continues. The message of God’s love and light and promise and hope continues. We are the ones that continue that message. We bring words of hope in phone calls and text messages and hand-written letters. We tend neighbors and those in need as we are able. We remind each other that our present moment will not last forever. As the Psalmist writes in Psalm 30, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Many of us have known that weeping at other moments in this life. For now we all stand together to weep over the loss of life and departure of what we have known in our routines and expected in our living, namely the freedom to do as we choose with our days. That freedom still exists, but certainly, we are learning new ways of living. My prayer is for the light to shine in your life – so that you may reflect that light to others. Deep peace be with you.

See you in church.
Pastor Chris