As we are all aware, the pandemic has caused enormous disruption to all aspects of our lives. Worship, prayer, and service are some of those aspects. For a long time we were not able to worship together, and we moved to webcasting services twice daily (except Saturdays), meeting by Zoom, and broadcasting our concerts. During that time we also began our grocery service for the vulnerable and shut-in. (During the pandemic many of our sources of income fell away: from rental of properties, to collections at services, to box office at concerts.) All that continues, but recently have we also been able to open the church to public worship once more: on Wednesday evenings at 6.15pm, at 8.30am on Sundays from 27 September, and, we hope, from some time in October, at 11am on Sundays for the Sung Eucharist. We are able this month to recommence perhaps four weekly 12-step meetings. Our concerts can now have a small in-person audience. Revelation Gallery will have its next full show in October. Our theater, though, for the moment, remains ‘dark’. Thus we strive to rebuild the rich pattern of worship, service to the community, and patronage of the arts within the parameters of safety given to us. 2011 will see us continuing to rebuild this parish life, but with diminished resources. In 2021, more than in previous years, budgeting to enable all these things will be difficult, and the more we know about our financial position the more wisely we will be able to plan our rebuilding. If you have pledged (committed to a certain giving over the course of a calendar year) before, we encourage you to do so again. If you have not pledged before, and perhaps given in a more ad hoc but equally generous way, and wish to continue to give, it would be very helpful for our planning if you might consider pledging (no matter how small the amount). The Rector, for example, gives 5% or his after-tax income to St John’s, but we each need to discern for ourselves how we might best contribute. As we approach 2021 with Christian hope and also with understandable caution, we are grateful for your contribution.
There is an on-line pledge form here:
