Easter is almost here! We may all be quarantined but the life, love, and joy of Jesus Christ continues through the church, through our community, and in our homes and with that in mind let’s get right to it…
1. Easter Online Worship: Yes, it is weird. Yes, we would all like to be gathered together at St. Peter’s on Sunday morning to celebrate the Risen Christ. No, we will not be gathering in person. We will be streaming our worship online once again on Facebook Live at 10am this Easter Sunday and then placing a link to the service recording on the church website later in the day – we hope that you’ll join us for this new way to worship! The best way that we can love and serve our neighbors as Christ calls us to do is by maintaining social distancing and being safe, even if it means doing things in a new and different way this year – so join our livestream or watch the recording when we post it to the church website and join us – we may be separated by distance but we are gathered together by the Holy Spirit no matter where we are! The worship bulletin for Sunday can also be viewed by clicking RIGHT HERE and is also attached to the end of this email. Finally, if you have friends who are not “online” much please reach out to them and offer help so that they can join our worship services and don’t forget to invite all your friends!
2. SHARE! Don’t forget to share our worship services and upcoming events (and past events) with your friends! One of the most amazing things that has happened over the last few weeks is how we have reached people near and far – we have had local members unable to attend worship joining us for worship in this new way and we have had friends and family and people we don’t even know joining us for worship and other events from places like Connecticut, Missouri, Georgia, Oregon, California, and Indiana. This is the easiest Evangelism you will ever do – share the life, love, and joy of Jesus Christ – and what we are doing at St. Peter’s – with everyone you know!
3. Need help viewing our live events? Are you having trouble viewing our worship services in real time on FaceBook Live or having trouble joining our Facebook Live chats? Never fear, thanks to Chrissy Waldron we have a handy tutorial here to help you easily access both our live events and, if you need, get on Facebook. Thanks Chrissy! You can find the tutorial RIGHT HERE.
4. Website Updates: If you are unable to view our services live do not worry – all of our recent services are available on the church website in the STP News section and our most recent service is always displayed on the website homepage. Be sure to check the website often for services, information, devotions, and other live events that we will be sharing during this difficult time.
5. Celebrating Communion: There is a lot of talk in church circles about whether or not to celebrate Communion through our online gatherings. To make things very simple – we will be celebrating Communion during our worship service this Easter Sunday. All you will need is some bread, crackers, chips, anything of the like and a glass of wine, juice, water, or anything of the like. I spoke about celebrating Communion during the Maundy Thursday worship service (a recording is available in the STP News section of the website) and if you have any questions about celebrating Communion remotely please do not hesitate to contact me directly at revsuloff@gmail.com.
6. Open Discussion Groups: We will be hosting open discussion groups again this week on Tuesday at 12:30pm and 7:30pm on Zoom (zoom.us). Zoom is a relatively easy and free website to host online meetings and discussions and there are more detailed instructions on how to join one of our discussion groups on the church website and we will re-post that information prior to the meetings on Tuesday. If you have any questions about our discussion groups, have a discussion topic you’d be interested in exploring, or have any trouble accessing the discussion groups please contact me directly at revsuloff@gmail.com.
7. Facebook Live Chat – Ask The Pastor Anything!: On Thursday I will once again be hosting a live chat on Facebook Live to “Ask the Pastor Anything!” at 7:30pm. During this time I will field as many questions as I can and if I don’t have the answer to your question I’ll work on finding it and sharing it the following week. I look forward to seeing you all again during this fun and weird way to have a chat!
8. Online Giving and Offering: During this time we know that many are struggling and we certainly understand that but if you are able to continue with your offering please either mail your offering envelopes to the church or consider using our ONLINE GIVING option on the website – it is a quick and easy way to share your gifts with the congregation.
9. SCRIP and Caring for the Community: As said, we know that many are struggling or will be struggling. SCRIP is a great way to support the church and help your neighbors at the same time – one of the best ways that we can help our community right now is by donating gift cards from Weis or Giant to the church so that we can distribute them to folks in needs either within our community or through the Colonial Neighborhood Council and other Social Ministry organizations. SCRIP is easy! You can increase what you give to the church by buying these cards for your daily expenses and help out your neighbors by donating cards. Groceries, gas, Home Depot, Target, Ace Hardware Stores, Amazon purchases, etc. To place orders for Scrip online go to www.ShopWithScrip.com and click “Join A Program.” Our Enrollment Code is: DDA6EF5815851. Our Organization is: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. Our Coordinator is: Jane Stettler, jstettler@krautharris.com. If you order cards for either personal use or donate we will be in touch with you to coordinate a safe way for you to pick up your cards.
10. Elastic Needed: There are volunteers throughout the community who are working to make masks during this time for various places that need them but elastic is in short supply – if you have new elastic in your sewing box that you can donate to help this cause please contact Pastor Suloff directly at revsuloff@gmail.com.
11. Church Office: Our church office will continue to function but it will obviously look very different for the time being as we are all going to be working remotely whenever it is possible. We will be going to the church periodically to check the mail, take care of administrative tasks that must be handled in the building, and update records. If you have a need during this time please do not hesitate to contact me directly on my cell phone or by email.
12. Check-ins: We ask all the people of St. Peter’s to check in with one another during this time – if you have time please call or email your friends and neighbors, the person who always sits in front on you at church, or someone whose name just pops into your head. If you are aware of any needs within our community please let me know directly. During this difficult time it is of the utmost importance that we communicate with one another and take care of one another as best we can.
13. Ideas: This is a new and different time for all of us – our church, community, nation, and world all must learn to do things differently – if you have any ideas for how we might better share the life, love, and joy of Jesus Christ please let me know!
14. Prayer: Look, we all feel kind of helpless right now and it is difficult – we can, and should, be socially distant during this difficult time. We can also pray because, quite frankly, that is what we do. Our prayer list is attached to the end of this email and I would encourage you all to find a bit of time each day to pray – for our families, our communities, our doctors, our nurses, all those who serve the world during this time, and for our world. We may be separated by distance but we can be united in prayer.
Well that covers everything for now St. Peter’s so we hope that you are staying safe and taking care of yourselves and one another – join us for Easter worship and our other online activities coming up this week, share what we are doing with your friends, don’t forget to check the website frequently, support our ministries at St. Peter’s and help your neighbors if you are able, pray without ceasing, and as always keep sharing the life, love, and joy of Jesus Christ with all!
Your fellow servant in Christ,
Pastor Suloff
