Look, I’m going to make this simple and straightforward – we
all want life to be back to normal but that is not the case at the moment. Life
is not simple, and it is not straightforward, we are a people together in something
new that none of us know how to go through. This is hard for all of us. This is
hard for the world.
As of right now, all our Holy Week services and Easter
services will be held online and all church activities will continue remotely.
This is the best way that we can help the community and serve our community –
we stay in our homes and we learn new ways to be a community that shares the life,
love, and joy of Jesus Christ with all.
This is not a political statement by any means, and we keep
politics out of church. This is a statement about our safety and how we, as
children of God, can best love and serve our neighbors and best be the people
of God.
We remain in a new state of the Church. Yes, things are
different now for all of us. Yes, we all want life to return to “normal”. No,
we cannot do that right now. We are called, as the people of God to love and
serve our neighbors and the best way that we can do that is by staying away in
person and gathering safely through new methods.
This is a new day for the world, for our community, and for
our church – our lives, our routines, all that we know as “normal” is upended –
so be it. Together we will persevere, together we will be a community, together
we will share the life, love, and joy of Jesus Christ with all in new and
different ways.
Together we protect our community and our world – even if that
means our Easter celebrations occur in our living rooms while wearing our pajamas.
Together we give thanks to God, sometimes in new and different ways. Together
we love and serve our neighbors. Together we can do all things with our Lord,
even all of this.
“I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to
have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being
well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do
all things through him who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:12-13
Your fellow servant in Christ,
Pastor Suloff
