Here is the link to the video that accompanies the details in this moment; I’ve included a few images from around the church: https://youtu.be/74iE149MI8Q
This has been quite a week. We’ve watched and possibly participated in the “relaxing of guidelines” or the “opening of many businesses” while lamenting that we likely won’t be worshipping in person for a while. It’s been 9 Sundays since we last worshipped in the building and 8 weeks since we closed the building. You might have heard about a United Church in Calgary who gathered on March 15th – using all the precautions known at the time including small gathering (41), social distancing and gloves – yet still became a cluster where 25 people were infected by COVID-19 and 2 people have died. It is a week where we find ourselves on both ends of the spectrum, wavering between wanting to go out and hug everyone and knowing we cannot and wanting to remain cautious and careful.
The scripture for this week has Jesus reminding his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned … I will send the spirit to be with you” as they tried to understand that he was going to die and they needed to go on with their ministry. Jesus also reminded them of the importance of following the “love God, love your neighbour” commandments which stand strong against the racism we hear that’s hard to believe. These are powerful reminders for them and us that God continues to be with us as we struggle and stumble and wander around trying to find the holy in the swirl of events we hear and see and participate in.
A few moments from the week:
Heard on a Zoom gathering: Next door, I see pink things hanging around the door and in the trees and all over the place! I believe they’ve just had a baby girl!
Travelling to a farm to pick up 17 bales of straw for the Trinity Community Garden as we prepare the space for about 50 families to grow their own food this summer, feeling a bit like a “farmer” with straw everywhere, and then finding out the real farmer has donated this straw because he believes in helping us.
“Can you please say a prayer on the phone so my father – who is dying in the hospital – is comforted?” and hearing the words of the 23rd Psalm flow from my heart to the bedside followed by a prayer ensuring them that this child of God is walking this path with God, that God will welcome him, that God’s peace is with them all. And recognizing the blessing that they are able to with him as he follows his journey home.
Going to give blood and receiving a red mask that I keep as a reminder that this is a life-giving moment for another.
Hearing a friend who works as a funeral director speak of how devastating they feel each time they can allow only a few people gather to view and celebrate their loved one’s life; “afterwards, we cry our hearts out because this is not what we are about” but knowing they must to keep people safe.
Harry writes of the picture Ellen took:
Love – but, really, “Active Love”.
Mother goose sits on her eggs, she has prepared her nest by plucking her own feathers – and in so doing she makes the contact stronger between her own body heat and her eggs. Periodically she rises, has her own version of a ‘break’, then checks and rotates each of her eggs before settling back to give them her warmth again. It is also a metaphor of Hope. Soon her little brood will hatch and she will be able to proudly escort them around the pond. Life at the “Pond” is one of Active Love and Hope, no matter what we humans are worrying about.
Be safe and be well, search for and find the holy all around you; know that God is walking with us and that amazing spirit finds its way into all our days – no matter where we are – and God’s ministry of love continues to live in all we do.
Blessings,
Elizabeth
Trinity United Church 