Letter from the Rector (8/1/20)

Dear Church Family,

I want to let you all know that I love you and cherish you with all my heart. Your love and devotion and sincerity are so evident in your love of our communal worship. I am missing seeing each of you and your beaming faces after receiving communion with Our Lord Christ. And I miss the energetic love and spilling over of life in the young ones who are part of our parish.

The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic is not letting up. For whatever the reasons, and those vary depending on the state, county and town, without a consistent indication of a lessening spread of the virus, both locally and nationwide, we remain convinced that even a partial reopening of St Gabriel and All Angels to even small groups of worshippers could invite the virus into our church family.

Things that mitigate against reopening are that we sing much of our service and communion has to be given into the mouth, not in the hand. Both these situations encourage the spread of the virus, should it come into the church with anyone. None of us want to see ourselves or anyone else in our church family test positive.

Most of us feel life has contracted during this time; that things we love to do have had to be abandoned; that places we used to go cannot be visited for now; that our lives have become smaller and more focused on keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe. One thing I have noticed in my own life about this apparent contraction is that The Lord doesn't take things away without giving us something, usually better, to replace it.

The challenge I have faced, and that I expect you have all been facing, is how to change how to look at the world with new eyes; how to find new places in yourself that bring the light and joy into your world.