Windsor Word, May 2021
Dear Congregation,
Two weeks into reopening our sanctuary for safe worship, we continue to learn and to adjust. I will continue to send regular updates to you of ongoing changes as we celebrate the grace and love of God and seek to open our hearts to the challenging call of the Holy Spirit.
Here is a summary of current and ongoing developments in the life of our congregation:
Worship Capacity: Our Medical Advisory Team has increased our capacity limit to 75 worshippers. This number does not include those who serve in worship–Ushers, Greeters, Hosts, Musicians.
We will need to consider how to improve worship participation in our narthex. Projection of prayers and songs is too small to be seen, and sound quality improvements are also needed. These needed improvements are a “good problem” generated by increasing in-person worship attendance. I pray this problem will increase in the fall, when our families return and guests join us for safe worship with our big-hearted, welcoming congregation.
Worship Time; 9:00 a.m.: Three weeks ahead of schedule, on May 2, we will move to our summer worship time of 9:00 a.m. We make this change for three reasons:
- Increased capacity limits allow us to combine services.
- Combining services is good stewardship of our resources–those who serve in worship as our musicians, greeters, ushers, and hosts.
- We expect our members to begin to travel to see family and friends from whom they have been long separated, catch up on life event celebrations, and take well-earned vacations.
Holy Communion on May 2: We will celebrate Holy Communion together in-person for the first time together as pastor and congregation next Sunday, May 2, and the first time as a church since February 2, 2020–455 days!
Video and Audio System: Our new video and audio systems are in the first phase of installation. By the end of this week, both video cameras are scheduled to be installed. Our new digital sound board was on one of those ships blocked by the Evergreen cargo ship stuck in the Suez canal. We hope it will arrive soon.
Luke 15 Ministry: Our Luke 15 Ministry has been a great success. Twenty-four members have signed up to help us give preferred seating to our guests. To join this ministry, visit http://windsorucc.com/luke-15/
Thank you to all the people who have contributed to re-opening our building for in-person worship, musicians who have done “double-duty,” ushers and greeters and hosts who have taken on new responsibilities, and all of our members who have supported our safe worship ministry by using our on-line sign up process and by masking and social distancing in our building.
God bless all of you, and God bless Windsor UCC.
Peace,
Pr. Craig