With Easter only days away, I am experiencing the great anticipation that always precedes the annual celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Last Easter, we were a couple of weeks into a time of fear and anxiety. Much of our everyday lives had been put on hold, including the ability to gather in-person as a church. The pandemic is not over. We are still mindful of loved ones who have lost their lives. We are still having to do things in new ways so that people are protected. But so much has changed in a year! We will gather in-person on Easter to celebrate the good news that Christ has risen. And because Christ has risen, we know that death does not have the final word and God’s love conquers all.
There are some differences you will notice on Sunday from recent weeks. One of the biggest things you will notice is the absence of ropes blocking off certain pews, allowing for a greater number of people in worship. Even though the ropes will be gone, please continue to exercise social distancing. We will also resume passing offering plates to gather tithes and offerings. These changes are based in new guidelines from the South Carolina Conference of the UMC. In keeping with medical advice, we will continue to ask people to wear face masks. Our continuing to wear masks allows us to expand the number of people in worship spaces.
We will also celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion on Easter indoors for both The Sanctuary and The Well. When you arrive for worship, you will receive one of the single use Communion cups we have been using in recent months. When the time comes to receive the bread and juice, you will take the Communion elements in your seats. I really look forward to celebrating Communion indoors!
Following Conference guidelines, we will not yet have congregational singing. We have been blessed to have excellent music since resuming in-person worship, but we all look forward to being able to sing hymns again. Even with everyone in masks, we would need to be more spread out to safely sing as a congregation. For example, Florence School District One is spacing singers twelve feet apart. This kind of spacing would drastically reduce the number of people we could safely have in worship spaces. Rest assured – as soon as we can have congregational singing, we will.
On a related note, our mid-week prayer and Communion service will be resuming in-person worship on April 14th. Please note this service is moving from Thursdays to Wednesdays. I am excited to resume this weekly worship service!
COVID-19 is still with us, but I feel like we are seeing light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Easter reminds us that Jesus’ victory over the grave means that the power of death and sin has been broken. In the face of pandemics and whatever awfulness the world brings, Jesus offers hope. Christian hope is not the wishing of an optimists, the but the assurance that Jesus promises to bring us through hard times. Jesus promises to ultimately bring us to a resurrection like his. We need to hear that word of hope. Whether you worship in-person or by livestream, let us gather on Easter Sunday morning to hear the good news that Christ is risen! These words from 1 Peter 1:3 come to mind.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Yours in Christ,
Thomas