A Letter from Lindy May 22

Pilgrims,
Thank all of you who reached out with such kindness after Zoom froze us out of worshipping together last Sunday. If you want to experience how we felt in the sanctuary watch this.Thank you Ellen Metcalf for gifting me with a much needed laugh :)
 
Laughing aside, I marveled, once again, at the split second reflexes of our worship team. As we did not learn until after 10am that we had a problem, Nathan and Lanny immediately began trouble shooting without missing a beat. Sadly their every effort could not break the zoom glacier that had descended upon the east coast, nor delink our YouTube channel from Zoom. We were held captive in this new virtual wild west.
 
So as 10:30 approached, Felix jumped onto chat and began responding, assuring and directing our Pilgrim family to a UCC-wide worship service for Mental Health Awareness Sunday. Who said God didn't have a sense of humor? I hope that service spiritually fed you in the moment.
 
Not to be outdone, our trusty tech team then found a way for us to record the worship service we had prepared and planned for, so on we went. As we have become used to an audience of one (the camera), as we got going, it didn't feel all that different. You even found a way to send us prayer petitions in real time, so we didn't  miss a beat. What I am learning is that we need to be prepared for the unexpected....but shouldn't we always?
 
As we move forward with caution, I think the lesson from Sunday, we hold with care. We can plan and plan and plan, and still we step forward into the unknown where the unexpected will surely happen, inviting us to adjust and learn and adapt. My prayer is that, even while frustrating, we respond with grace and forgiveness.
 
As a press conference Thursday morning with Durham Clergy United, I remarked that we are not the first of God's people to be displaced from worshiping in their Temple. What, we, people of the book, should lean into, is that no matter where or how God's people gathered for worship, God always showed up....and continues to do so today.
 
Pastor Lindy