Love Is Not Canceled

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Many things have been cancelled because of the coronavirus. Love is not one of them. If there is anything I want you to hold onto right now, it is that. Love has not been canceled. We have had to cancel things out of our love for each other. And just because we cannot be physically present to each other and literally reach out our arms of love to each other and to those we serve in our community, does not mean that we cease to be connected. What it means is that we need to do it in different ways. Jesus said, “When two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of them.” Well, we can still gather. We can still serve. We can still love. Just a bit differently, remotely, safely. Love has not been canceled. So let me tell you some ways we are going to stay connected, continue to serve and even expand our love.

Worship

Sunday Worship: For people who have been formed by weekly attendance in church this is hard. It just is. One of our members wrote to me this week and said how sad they are that church is canceled because it is the highlight of his week. Sunday mornings at CHC is the time and place where our spirits are nourished and fed. And while we will abstain from the eucharist for now, we can still find ways to worship and enjoy fellowship. Last Sunday many of us attended the service at the National Cathedral from the comfort of our homes while sipping coffee in our pajamas. Some of you told me how wonderful that experience was given our circumstances. This Sunday, March 22nd, our bishop is requesting that the Diocese of Maryland worship together by attending the livestream of the 11am service at our cathedral. Information for future Sunday worship services will be forthcoming.

CHC Compline Three Times Each Week: Tomorrow (Saturday) night at 7:30p, you are invited to “Compline Online."  Compline, or night prayer, is traditionally the last service of the day just before bedtime. It is a beautiful service that lasts about 15 minutes. We will use “Zoom” as the vehicle to come together in an interactive way. We will offer this service every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evening at 7:30pm. Click here to attend: https://zoom.us/j/784328071

Holy Week: In observing an abundance of caution, we just don’t know when we are going to be able to physically worship together again. The bishop announced yesterday that we will not be able to worship in our buildings through at least May 16th. So we are thinking about how we will continue our Lenten journey, live into Holy Week and celebrate Easter remotely.

Caring for One Another

What You Can Do: Please take the opportunity to reach out in safe ways to those you may know in our CHC community who may be alone, fragile, or otherwise vulnerable and assure them of your and our support during these challenging times. Likewise, please be in touch with someone you may know who is not connected through email and/or the internet to make certain they are aware of our plans. Please don't assume someone else has made that contact. It is always better to hear from several concerned friends than to hear from none!

Pastoral Care: To aid that effort, we have created a “CHC Phone Tree." Each member of the church will receive a phone call from one of our appointed pastoral care shepherds weekly. If you need to talk, please text, call, or email. If you need assistance (or cannot leave your house for essentials), please let me, Jo+ or your CHC shepherd know. If you are willing assist others in support in these please, please also let us know. If I am not available, please leave a message! The church phone number is 410-252-2711 and my email address is ctang.chc@comcast.net . Jo+ can be reached at jleslie.chc@comcast.net .

Caring for the Wider Community

Food for Thought: While we don’t want to see empty shelves in the grocery store, I am delighted to tell you the pantry shelves at CHC are empty. The Food for Thought coordinating team asked that we share this update:

“We want to let you know what’s happening with your recent food donations for Food For Thought. Last Friday, Mike Peper delivered the remaining backpacks for the month to Padonia and Pot Spring. Wednesday, Nicole, the guidance counselor at Pot Spring, reached out to ask if we had any food we could donate to the families. Apparently, today will likely be the last day the school will be able to give food to the families. We decided to empty our pantry in order to provide these families with additional food during this great time of need. Nancy, Mike and Will loaded up their van with all your generous donations and took the food to Pot Spring. Nicole was overjoyed with the sight of the packed van and our generous contribution.

This was Nicole’s response to the photo of the full car (photo at bottom of this email): “Oh my goodness. There is simply no way to thank you. I don’t know how we would ever support our families without you. This is tremendous and is going to make SUCH A DIFFERENCE for so many families in our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!” Many thanks to everyone for all your contributions to this critical ministry. Also, you can hold off on your monthly contributions until we know if and when the schools will resume the school year.

Mt. Calvary - Dinners: For the past several years we have been providing dinner on the 4th Wednesday of the month to about 75 persons at Mt. Calvary Church. As gatherings of that size are unsafe, Michael Curley and Mike Ostendorf are working with members at Mt. Calvary on developing a strategy to offer “to go” meals. In particular, we are planning on providing the meal on April 22nd.

Community Partners: Kol HaLev, 12-step programs and support groups have all ceased in-person gatherings and moved to online meetings. We have two community partners that will continue using our buildings. Active Minds will continue operations as they are providing childcare for medical care workers and first responders. They are currently caring for 8 children. Active Minds is working with the Baltimore County Health Department to make sure all established protocols in place.

Red Cross: The nation is facing a critical shortage in the blood supply as donations have declined greatly. Although we cannot use our building for worship, we will use it as a blood donation site. In order to create the safe distances that are required, I have authorized the Red Cross to use the church. The Red Cross has already asked for two dates, March 31 and April 5. April 5 is Palm Sunday. So on this Holy Day when we read the passion of Jesus, when we begin our Holy Week and contemplate his sacrifice, I encourage those who are able to give blood. I cannot imagine a more appropriate way to use church if it cannot be used for worship.

Caring for our Future

Please know, the staff, officers and vestry are meeting remotely on a regular basis. I am grateful to be working and ministering with a fine group of leaders. Please hold us in your prayers as we navigate our way through uncharted territory.

I want to leave you with this final thought: In these trying times, when we are unable to gather in person, the Church of the Holy Comforter is still here for you. We have started streaming some services online, tomorrow we will send you links to some spiritual/educational resources, we will continue to be a hub for the community even if we are not in our buildings, we continue to provide pastoral care. In other words, we continue to be the church.

A church member wrote asking about sending financial support for our mission: “I want to show my devotion maybe not be attending service, but by supporting God’s mission. Anyway, at this time it is not smart to buy stock but it’s always a good idea to invest in love.”

We will continue to invest in love for our community and for the world. At Holy Comforter, love has not been canceled.

Be safe. Be well. And be at peace.

Chris+

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