Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-10-07
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
Special Edition/Covid News
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
The single goal of the Covid-19 Response Team has remained the same: to keep our flock and our staff safe from a deadly disease for which we have no cure or vaccine. They met on Tuesday October 6th and made these decisions:
1.) Worship remains essential. To that end, the Worship Team will propose an alternate face-to-face service that will begin in late October/early November. The service will be limited to fifty-people and will be offered at a time other than 9:00 a.m. on Sundays. The time of this service and other details will be announced, but will include preregistration, check-in, sign-in with temperature check, physical distancing, the wearing of masks, no spoken liturgy, no congregational singing, etc. This face-to-face service will last no more than 40-minutes. There will be no indoor fellowship, and no coffee or food service.
2.) Worship remains essential. To that end, our flagship worship service will remain as is. We will record our full service and have it available for viewing at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings on YouTube, Facebook, and our church website. The recorded service will be placed on our website for future views. Go to FirstPres.Live
3.) We will not be having indoor, in-person Christmas Eve Services. We believe the higher incidence of traveling will exacerbate the possible spread of Covid, as the likelihood of non-symptomatic carriers (and possibly out-of-towners) will be high. The Worship Team is working on virtual options and outdoor options. (The CYF Team is already working on their virtual Nativity that will be shared online.)
The Session of our church will discuss and vote on these three motions on October 15th.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with me about how we should best move forward. What I’ve learned is that everyone is making their way through this pandemic in individual ways, family by family making different decisions that seem best for them. It’s trickier doing moving forward as a congregation when different ones of us are in different places. Individually and congregationally, however, I know we’ll arrive on the other side—relieved and whole. Why do I know this? Because God has led people through tricky passages before. God is most assuredly with us now. And God is worthy of our glad trust.
As your pastor, you can imagine how I want to serve well every soul who calls this congregation home. I want to strengthen this flock by God’s grace any way I can. Please remember the herculean efforts being made to gather the flock for service, worship, and spiritual growth by way of Zoom and a few in person events. Some of those opportunities include:
* Sunday in the Park (11:00 every other Sunday in Hessel Park, weather permitting),
* The Wednesday Night Gathering (every Wednesday at 7:00), *PW circles (contact Brandi Lowe for details),
*The Pickleball Team (Wednesdays at 1:00 at Hessel Park), *Myriad church committees and study groups,
*Saturday Francophone prayer online,
*Sunday School programs for children, youth, and Easy English, etc. * Private prayer in the sanctuary; (it is scheduled to be opened on Thursday October 8th from 7 to 9 a.m.)
Please, also, remember how your dollars are trickling through our church out into our community and world bringing all manner of healing, groceries, and hope.
God is faithful even in pandemic.
God is good. All the time.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews/864.386.9138
* * *
Our church needs to pray together. Please join me for Wednesday evening prayer tonight.
* * *
PRIVATE PRAYER… Our Sanctuary will be open for private prayer on THIS Thursday morning October 8th from 7 to 9 a.m. While there will be no organized service, you may come and sit in the space to pray and meditate. Physical distancing, masks, sign in with temperature check, and registration/contact tracing will be operative. Our worship team will greet and assist you. Only fifty people at a time will be allowed in. Bring your own Bible or hymnals if you wish, as the pew materials have all been removed as a safety precaution. See you on Thursday!
* * *
Don’t forget these conversations on PUBLIC SAFETY: The City of Champaign is pleased to invite you to participate in a community listening session to share your vision for public safety in our community. All residents, business owners and community stakeholders are encouraged to take part. The goal is to help create better communication and understanding between Champaign Police, City Administrators and community members by allowing you to directly voice your thoughts and expectations around policing. Each session will include Chief of Police Anthony Cobb and Police command staff, City Manager Dorothy David, and elected City officials. The listening sessions will be moderated by Dr. Travis Dixon, an American media studies scholar and Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois.
Determining the future of policing in our community should be a collaborative process involving community partnerships, and the first step in that process is to hear from you. Each listening session will be used to gather information from the public so it can be shared with the City Council as they make future public safety policy decisions to best address the needs, interests, and values of our community. Virtual Listening Session Dates:
· Friday, Oct. 9, 1-3 p.m.
· Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6-8 p.m.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the listening sessions will be held electronically using the Zoom meeting platform. More information on how to join and participate, including how to attend via Zoom can be found on the City’s website at champaignil.gov/
Humor (Hard times need godly laughter):
From Skip Pickering: Logic from an uncluttered Mind
A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, ‘I’m drawing God.’
The teacher paused and said, ‘But no one knows what God looks like.’
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, ‘They will in a minute.’
Good Word:
Isaiah 58:10-12
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 and if you give yourself to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light shall rise in obscurity,
and your darkness shall become as the noonday.
11 And the Lord shall guide you continually,
and satisfy your soul in drought,
and strengthen your bones;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you shall rebuild the old waste places;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
and you shall be called, the Repairer of the Breach,
the Restorer of Paths in which to Dwell.
LET US PRAY:
By your grace may this pandemic transform us to be a congregation full of grace, love, and compassion for the world that you have created and redeemed. May we be made more and more into the flock you would have us to be. Help us God. And, forgiving our impatience . . .
hurry.
AMEN
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
