All week we have been wrestling with how to walk with the revolutionary Jesus and best love our All Saints and Pasadena community as the Coronavirus outbreak continues to unfold.
Our value of Radical Inclusion leads us to provide safe spaces for all people to come together and prioritize staying together as a community.
Our value of Courageous Justice leads us to prioritize the safety of those most vulnerable and be guided by the best available medical facts and counsel.
Our value of Joyful Spirituality leads us to lead with love, ground ourselves in hope, maintain a sense of humor and continue to provide opportunities for prayer, worship and celebration in any circumstance.
Our value of Ethical Stewardship leads us to collaborate with community partners and be faithful to our role as a leader in this community.
Therefore, we will only have ONLINE worship services this Sunday, March 15th that will be available for streaming via our website (https://allsaints-pas.org/live-stream/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AllSaintsPasadena/). Sunday’s schedule will be as follows:
8 am— Erica Tamblyn and I will be in the courtyard with Lucky Boy gift cards (thank you, Erica!) to distribute to those among us who depend on our food table for their Sunday breakfast.
11:15 am — online worship in English with readings, a “sermonchat” with me, music from our Coventry soloists, and a praying of prayers texted in real-time during the service. A “virtual coffee hour” will follow using the newly-activated chat feature on our livestreaming page where I and others will take questions and we can talk for a while.
1 pm — online worship (English-Spanish) with readings, a “sermonchat” with Alfredo Feregrino, music from Dan Cole, and a praying of prayers real-time during the service.
5 pm — online jazz vespers. Wonderful music with a bilingual liturgy.
All classes and activities scheduled for Sunday are either being postponed or exploring online options. If you are in Adult Confirmation or Getting Connected, you will hear from your class leader.
Our “action table” will be virtual this Sunday. It is available here. Please download the letter, print and mail it to the address on the letter. This week’s action in incredibly important and your voice is needed!
We will evaluate Sundays on a week-to-week basis. We are also exploring daily ways of staying connected as a community online and will share those as they fall into place.
We are deeply aware of our need of God and each other … particularly in this time of heightened anxiety … and so as we make this move, we are paying special attention to those who are most vulnerable not only to the virus but because of anxiety, isolation or economic circumstance.
As such, I have appointed a Congregational Response Team specifically to look at maintaining community and congregational care during this time. Christine Hartman has wonderfully agreed to convene it, with Sally Howard, Nancy Naecker, Juliana Serrano, and Alfredo Feregrino as staff representatives. Parish members are Thomas Diaz, Judy Van Fleet, Sara Baker, and Susan Brown.
You can help! Please think of people who are vulnerable, anxious and in need … and then do two things:
First — reach out to them yourself. Phone. Text. Email. Drop them a card. Ask if there is anything they need. Spend some time just talking and listening.
Second — let us know. Email CRT convener Christine Hartman at christine@icehatcreative.com with any information about people in need.
Keith Holeman has set up a special Coronavirus page on the website that will be our clearinghouse for information going forward. Please check the page regularly! It currently contains specific information about small groups, CYF, choirs, and many of our ministries and programs.
In general, most things are either being postponed or moved online … with the exception of things like recovery ministry grief groups, etc. that are both essential to our most vulnerable people and can easily be held in larger rooms with social distancing. Some decisions are still being made. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.
We are committed to keeping the Monday Food Ministry open and running it in a safe manner because we are prioritizing those most vulnerable among us.
As of today, the church office is remaining open normal hours. Some staff are working there and some will be working from home. Note that all staff and regular contracted workers are being guaranteed the income they have come to expect from All Saints Church for the duration of the epidemic. This includes administrative assistants, musicians, childcare workers, and building and grounds staff … everyone salaried, hourly or regularly contracted.
We appreciate your patience … and please check the page regularly.
One more thing. In the interest of full transparency – and out of an abundance of love for this community – I want you to know that, three weeks ago, from February 19-22, 2020 All Saints Church Director of Congregational Development Nancy Naecker, Director of Giving Terry Knowles, and I attended the annual conference of CEEP (Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes) in Louisville, Kentucky. Last Sunday after worship – 15 days after the conference — we learned that a conference attendee had been diagnosed with and was being treated for COVID-19. Since then three others have been diagnosed. I did not interact with any of these individuals at the conference, and while Nancy and Terry did, none of us has developed any symptoms.
We are fortunate enough to have health care, so we contacted our primary care physicians, and this is the response: “If you have no symptoms, then you don’t qualify for a test at this time. If you do develop symptoms, let us know right away. But you are past the 14-day window where symptoms would usually show up after exposure, so you should be fine.”
In addition, I followed up with a parishioner who is a leader in the healthcare industry, who has been working with state and national officials on addressing the virus, shared the same information with him and he said we didn’t need to get tested, that we were fine, and that we didn’t need to take any precautions beyond that which everyone should normally be taking.
Please let me know if you have any questions or want any more details. Mostly, if you think you might have been exposed or feel sick … check with your doctor. If you don’t have a doctor, and your symptoms are extreme (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/symptoms.html) call 911 or go to an emergency room. In milder cases, call a nearby urgent care facility. And … let us know so we can walk with you on the journey.
Everything else, I hope you know already, but just in case…
* If you are 60 or older with another underlying condition – or live with someone who is, please stay at home as much as possible and take maximum precautions. Let us know what All Saints can do to help you.
* Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Get as much rest as you can. If you are sick, stay home.
And … feed your spirit and others’. Breathe. Love. Sing. Dance (even if it’s just tapping your fingers to a good tune). As we, for at least one Sunday, refrain from gathering face-to-face, this is an amazing opportunity to strengthen the bonds among us in new ways. Find new ways to hug each other. Distance doesn’t mean estrangement … it can mean deeper, even more intentional love.
You are not alone. None of us are. We have God and we have each other.
It always comes down to how best to love.
God will love us and we will love each other through all of this and more.
Rest in that.
Rejoice in that.
Trust in that.
See you soon.
