Letter from Lindy August 15

Hello Pilgrims,

Now up to my knees in the wading waters of Pilgrim, it seems almost every conversation is about our return to sanctuary on September 12. After an 18 month absence, there is much to do to get ready. Our wonderful trustees have a punch-list a mile long and feel the pressure as if the in-laws were coming over for the first time. We are collectively excited to finally, finally come back. In person. Inside.

And then there is the Delta variant moving and mutating through our community. Our country. Our world. Walking with my neighbor, a professor at Duke’s medical school, she offered a dire warning that COVID may be with us for a couple of years, waxing and waning, as we have seen it do over this past year and a half. Nadia Bolz-Weber observed in her weekly blog that we must build the capacity to live in the “Stockdale Paradox”-- the ability to hold two opposing but equally true things at once:

You must have faith that you will prevail in the end, and at the same time you must confront the brutal facts of your current reality.

I do believe this is our task at hand. We will return. And we will find our rhythm and our way within a reality that we are still amidst a pandemic. So worship, and our way of leaning into it, will look and feel different. We will be masked. We won’t come into the building until just before worship begins-no adult Sunday school, yet.Lingering on the patio, we will be invited to place prayer cards and offerings in designated trays. We may not be able to sit in our regular pew, because it might be cordoned off to create an abundance of space. We might have to sit next to folks we don’t know. Pilgrim’s choir will be on the chancel versus in the loft. The movements of Offering, Communion and Passing of the Peace will feel different with no trays, touching, hugging, kissing until fellowship on the patio. We will pay close attention to our color-coding system of comfort to ensure that we meet each other where we are at, so as to ensure hospitality and welcome for all. To reiterate, fellowship will be simple and outside.

Gosh that’s a lot to have to think about in one brief hour. It will also take a lot of coordination and volunteers. We need you! In the coming weeks, you will be invited to sign up to help make Sunday happen. Please give of yourself for the well-being of our beloved community. Prevailing will take our collective effort, care and consideration for the whole, held alongside (and perhaps even surpassing) our personal needs.

And I think this is precisely what Jesus has been trying to teach us all along. About what it means to be a resident of God’s kindom. A reflection of God’s light. A breath of holy Spirit. From the outside it may look like work and sacrifice, but from the inside it actually feels like hope, love, and faith. And of course, the greatest of these is love…. which is what we will be putting into practice.

through that love,
Pastor Lindy (she/her) why pronouns matter

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