As I wrote in last month’s newsletter, the time would be coming soon when many (if not all) aspects of church life would return. At the July 12 meeting of Salem’s Worship Team, the recommendation was made (and approved by the Consistory the next night) that the 10:30 a.m. worship service will move indoors beginning Sun., August 1. The service will have the full range of worship elements including singing and liturgy. Seating will not be assigned (we trust that people will not crowd unnecessarily into other peoples’ spaces). Masks will not be required, but it is our strong suggestion that unvaccinated persons should mask; persons not comfortable with in-person worship in this format should feel free to continue using the live-stream worship option.
Beginning September 5, in-person worship will move from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., with the same provisions. At that time, we will start to assess whether or not a second service should be added, and if so, when. Since we will continue to live-stream worship at 8:30 a.m., we will need to determine how to set the sound system for both live-stream and live worship at the same time, and the month of August will allow us time for a dry run or two before September arrives. By the time we get to the second week of September we should have a full range of worship and Christian Education available to us.
I recognize that the changes may be too soon for some, and not soon enough for others. However, it was a format that all of the persons on the Worship Team and the Consistory could agree on.
Before leaving the topic of worship format, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude for the team of folks that made live-stream worship a reality since late March, 2020. When it was apparent that we were not going to be able to have public, indoor worship, this group of persons–technical and musical–kept the flame of worship going, without missing a beat, for sixteen months. They kept it going every Sunday, without fail, plus Lenten and Holy Week services, even when illness thinned our ranks on occasion. It was a small group by design, since the early lock-down restrictions would not permit more than 10 people in an enclosed space. It was a group that limited their daily in-person contacts as much as possible. We could have just recorded the pastor handling liturgy and preaching, as many other congregations did during the pandemic, but we wanted to provide our congregation and the community around us with a quality worship experience that contained music, even if producing that music was riskier to the participants. Until recently, it was simply not feasible to open up the live-stream service to more persons.
I know that the persons who were involved in this ministry did not do it for praise or recognition, but I do want to thank them for their faithful work for well over a year. We discovered, in the process, that our live-stream worship experience was reaching people we hadn’t reached before and for that reason we will continue to use this tool going forward.
One other note: I have set a performance date for the Jonah musical–October 22 – 24. It has been a project four years in the making (we had plans to try it last year, but you know how that story ended) and I am eager to get this off the ground. More details will follow in the weeks ahead.
Again, to repeat what I wrote last month, we will need to be intentional about inviting people of our church community to come back into the life and ministry of the congregation. More information will come out on that in the weeks ahead, as well.
Shalom aleichem—Peace be with you.
Rev. Jim Hoppert
