Welcome to Online Worship at the Parish of Saint Patrick

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020 - Online Worship Resources!

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

These last weeks have been quite a roller coaster of emotion, constant data feeds of information and opinions on how to respond to the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Our Bishops Taylor and Bruce have given the clergy and lay leadership in the Diocese of Los Angeles the clear message to exercise our own authority and judgment to make decisions about our common life, including worship, meetings and events in our parishes. The primary goal in developing an action plan is to 1) slow the spread of the virus so we slow the rate at which our friends, family and neighbors (and ourselves) get sick, and 2) as we take our responsibility seriously as leaders in our community to slow the spread, we must do our part to keep those systems from being overwhelmed and support our healthcare workers and organizations as they struggle to treat everyone who needs help. This is what it means at this critical moment to love your neighbor as yourself.

Therefore, in consultation with your Vestry and motivated by sound science and public health directives - and to mitigate the spread of this pandemic and quite literally save lives - Saint Patrick's is taking these actions:

This Sunday, March 15 will be our last in-person worship service for three weeks at least. Around April 1 we will assess the situation and decide as to whether it is safe to gather in-person once again.

The Saint Patrick's Day Pageant at our 10:15 service this Sunday, March 15 is cancelled.

All common worship will be held online beginning next Sunday, March 22. Look for information on Facebook Livestream in your email next week.

The Wednesday Healing Mass is cancelled until April 22.

The Liturgical Ministers Training scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, March 14 is cancelled and will be rescheduled.

All church related meetings and events are cancelled until April 5 or until further notice. This means there will be no church related meetings or events on our campus until at least April 5. This means no Yoga, no Centering Prayer practice, no Lenten Soup Night, no Adult Christian Formation between services, no Homeless Meal, etc. for at least three weeks.

We will continue to gather for common worship and prayer each Sunday. We will continue to be the love-spreading, difference-making people God has called us to be. We'll just be exploring new ways of being church online.

While I must admit my heart is sad that we won't be together physically for a little while, I am excited and challenged that we have the opportunity to discover online streaming as a possibility for common worship. I am full of wonder at how we can develop this technology to include live-streaming every Sunday so that our home-bound brothers and sisters can participate in our common life on a regular basis.

I know this will be challenging for us. I am not unaware that this pandemic may well keep us from celebrating the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus together in-person in the coming weeks. And that breaks my heart. But Paul tells us to give God gratitude in all circumstances, and we must find a way to trust that God will show us new ways to be church outside the walls of our church, out in the world where Christ is alive and working out the reconciliation and re-creation of the whole world, even now.

We are a people called to loving action, to be in lock-step with the One we call Emmanuel, God-with-us. We are called by Jesus to that work of restoration and re-creation for a world which needs our vigilant prayers and responsible action right now. And that work calls us not to gather for the time being.

I send you my love. I love you all. My family and I continue to give God gratitude for your generosity, authenticity and joy. I look forward to a time in the very near future when each of us will share with one another our joyful wonderment at God's gracious provision during this time apart. Please look to your email in-boxes this next week and the weeks to come for updates.

In Love and Peace,

(The Rev.) George Daisa, Rector