March 23, 2020 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Dear Good Shepherd Church,
In greet you in the Name of and with the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! On Monday, March 23, Governor John Bel Edwards ordered a statewide "stay at home" mandate for Louisiana in the wake of the current COVID-19 crisis. As of this writing, Louisiana is exhibiting the fastest growth rate of the coronavirus of any state or country in the world. (Go back and read that sentence again!) As such, I am writing to implore you to heed the Governor's mandate and remain home except for leaving your house for groceries, medical appointments, picking up "to go" food, exercise, or checking on a loved one--and then, PLEASE practice appropriate social distancing. What About Church? On Sunday, March 22, Good Shepherd Church streamed on 10:00 AM service online. If you did not see the service, you may watch it online on the GSC YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/Sp439Sr-V0w For the immediate future, in keeping with the Governor's mandate, all events at Good Shepherd Church remain suspended. This includes all regular worship services. Sunday morning services will continue to have a presence online each week and you will be notified by email and via our social media streams as to the URL for each particular service. You may also consider subscribing to our YouTube channel and clicking the bell to receive all notifications. In my letter to you last week, I spoke about daily prayer time in our sanctuary. Unfortunately, Monday, March 23 marked the last day we were able to offer this time to 10 parishioners at a time. Again, we are heeding the Governor's mandate and encouraging you to do the same--stay home. If you are in need of anything that I can assist you with, please do not hesitate to call me at home, on my cell, or at the office. Even though the office is closed, all voicemail will be forwarded to me. You may also reach me via email. If you are a member of our parish and you do not have my personal email address, simply reply to this email and I will respond to you with my personal email address. Finally, know that each day I am praying for you and your family. I am also attempting to call some of you each day on the phone just to check on you. I have also been blessed by our Council President Margaret Aucoin also calling members to check on them. But again, if you need anything, I encourage you to call, email, or even use the form on our website to reach out and I will get back to you as quickly as possible. The Lord bless you and yours in the Almighty Name of God: [+] the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In service to our Lord and His Church, I remain your humble servant, The Rev'd Randall M. Graf Pastor
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As gathering in-person is not an option for Sunday worship at this time, Good Shepherd Church will LiveStream our Sunday morning service at 10:00 AM on Sunday, March 22, 2020--the Fourth Sunday of Lent.
You may tune in on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/Sp439Sr-V0w If you would like a copy of the liturgy in order to pray along with us, you may download a .pdf copy of it from: http://www.gschristian.com/liturgy/22March2020.pdf We look forward to you being a part of our virtual gathering this Sunday! The Feast Day of St. Joseph Dear Good Shepherd Church,
In greet you in the Name of and with the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is third pastoral letter I have written to you in the past week. As COVID-19 continues to be a threat to the health of our nation, the approach our national, state, local, and ecclesiastical leaders are taking to combat its spread is changing at a rapid pace. Please read this entire message to be updated on Good Shepherd Church. What About Worship? Given that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended public gatherings not exceed ten persons, traditional in-person worship services are impractical at this time. As such, Bishop Clark Lowenfeild of the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast is directing all congregations to refrain from gathering “in person for worship or other activities of more than 10 people until further notice.” I would encourage you to read the Bishop’s full statement here. The Current Sunday Solution At this time, I am working to do all in my power to begin providing for “live streaming services” on Sunday mornings until such time as we are able to meet again as an entire church family. I will keep you posted on this progress and hope to have a notice sent out to you within the next 48 hours about how you will be able to tune in online for our Sunday morning worship service. Weekday Silent Prayer at GSC While we are unable to gather for worship, it is my desire that the church doors remain open, in some form or fashion, to our parishioners. I know you feel as I do, that sometimes what we really need is the comfort of our home church as a place to offer our prayers. As such, beginning on Friday, March 20, 2020, Good Shepherd Church will be open for drop-in silent prayer each day of the week, Monday through Friday, during select hours. The days and hours are as follows:
Please understand that formal worship services will not be held during those times, but rather, you may enter the sanctuary for a time of silent prayer. During those hours, a member of our church council will be present to assure that no more than 10 persons are gathered at any given time. I ask that you please remain mindful of this limitation on the number of persons present and that you refrain from the temptation of using this time as a social visit with other parishioners. Because of the ten person limit, the assigned church council member may have to ask those who have been present longest to kindly vacate the church property in order to allow others into the sanctuary for a time of prayer. A log-in book will be located in the narthex and we are asking that each person who visits for prayer sign themselves in and out at every visit. This will allow us to track use of this offering in order to modify it, as necessary, going forward in time. Keeping In Contact I want to encourage our church family to maintain contact with each other. The use of social media, texting, emails, and phone calls all represent wonderful means by which to keep in touch. Please do so! Pick up the phone and call a fellow parishioner just to say “hi”, to check on them, or to pray with and for them. If you need a church directory, please let me know. In addition to myself, our Council President will also be making some phone calls to members for good, old fashioned check-ins. And if you feel like would like to be a part of the phone ministry that calls to touch base and check in with folks, please let President Margaret or me know. Spiritual Communion Finally, because being in personal communion, one with another, is severely limited at this time, I would like to offer you a resource called “Spiritual Communion”. This brief prayer liturgy comes from the Armed Services Book of Common Prayer (1951) and was originally intended for use by military personnel who were deployed in conditions where access to a church or chaplain was severely limited. It is a prayer liturgy that you can pray alone or with your household, and while it does not afford the elements of Holy Communion, it does afford the worshiper the chance to prayerfully remain connected and in communion with the Body of Christ throughout the world. Please use this link to view Bishop Clark Lowenfield’s brief video about making an act of Spiritual Communion and download your own copy of the liturgy here. In service to our Lord and His Church, I remain your humble servant, The Rev'd Randall M. Graf Pastor The Feast Day of St. Cyril of Jerusalam A message from Bishop Clark Lowenfield, Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast (Anglican Church in North America). Please download a .pdf copy of the Spiritual Communion liturgy for your personal use and for use in your household.
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent Dear Good Shepherd Church,
I greet you in the Name of and in the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Just a quick note about Sunday services at GSC. YES, we will hold them. Of course, as stated in my pastoral letter from Thursday, March 12, there will be some modifications to practices. And to reiterate, if you are not well, DO NOT COME TO CHURCH. Additionally, if you are in a high-risk group and feel uncomfortable about attending worship, you should not attend worship. (As a reminder, if you are in a high risk group, please speak to your doctor as there may be other lifestyle modifications that you should be considering that have not even crossed your mind.) What is the purpose of this communication? The purpose of this communication is to notify you that in the face of the current challenge, Good Shepherd Church will continue to minister to God’s people. As such, I want to make everyone aware of additional options for worship. You may ask: Additional options for worship? Yes. Additional options for worship. When will services be held tomorrow? Tomorrow, March 15, Good Shepherd Church will hold services at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM, and 2:00 PM. Why additional services? One of the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is the practice of social distancing. What social distancing entails is having folks who have no obvious need for isolation, continue to gather but do so practicing healthy space boundaries. By keeping an adequate distance from each other in group gatherings, unseen risks can be minimized. The recommended distance is approximately 6 feet. By adding services, we are able to offer the opportunity for continued in-person worship for otherwise healthy individuals, but with the chance to spread people out a bit within the worship space. Please be aware that regardless of which service you choose to attend at Good Shepherd Church, ushers will be on hand to assist congregants in appropriately spacing themselves throughout the sanctuary. I would ask your cooperation and appreciation of this in advance and that you be understanding if you are asked to move a bit away from what you may consider “your seat” in church. Our 10:00 AM Sunday morning service is by far our most well attended of established services. Some who regularly attend that service may wish to consider our established 8:30 AM service. This service is usually attended by only a handful of parishioners. Some may also wish to consider attending the new option of our 2:00 PM service. Again, by spreading out our parishioners across more services, we will have smaller groups worshipping together allowing for a better utilization of our worship space. In conclusion, a thank you. In conclusion, I want to offer a heartfelt thank you to Mel Aucoin, Margaret Aucoin, and Bob Volk. As most know, Mel oversees our buildings and grounds and, along with Bob Volk, does a wonderful job of keeping things clean. Over the past week, Margaret has also done a spic and span job overseeing precautionary disinfecting. Prior to our Thursday evening Holy Eucharist, she used a disinfecting agent to wipe down pews, doorknobs, and other frequently touched areas and items in our church and plans to continue this practice in advance of upcoming worship services. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. In service to our Lord and His Church, I remain your humble servant, The Reverend Randall M. Graf Pastor Thursday of the Second Week of Lent Dear Good Shepherd Church,
I greet you in the Name of and in the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! There is no escaping the amount of attention that COVID-19, aka, the coronavirus is getting these days. While the threat still remeans relatively low at this time, there is no denying that more cases are being diagnosed in our country, a trend that epidemiologists predict will continue until Spring. Furthermore, the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC) has been very vocal about taking reasonable precautions to limit potential spread of COVID-19 and has also been very vocal regarding certain segments of the U.S. population that are more at-risk for this virus and the flu virus. These populations include those over the age of 60 and anyone with underlying, pre-existing health conditions. What is Good Shepherd Church doing? On Thursday, March 5, 2020, Bishop Clark Lowenfield of the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast sent out a pastoral letter encouraging local churches to adopt some common-sense approaches to worship experiences, much of which revolves around the distribution of Holy Communion. These included requiring clergy to wash their hands prior to the start of each service and the use of hand sanitizer by clergy and Eucharistic lay ministers immediately before the start of the Eucharistic prayer during the service. At Good Shepherd Church, we immediately incorporated those modifications into our worship beginning on Thursday evening, March 5 at our midweek Holy Eucharist. I have heard from multiple members of our church family—some younger, some older, some perfectly healthy, some with underlying medical conditions. All who have spoken with me were candid and offered intelligent, well-founded feedback and food-for-thought about concerns surrounding this winter cold-flu-virus season. I am very appreciative of your concerns and thankful for your communications. After much prayer, conversation with fellow clergy, personal research, and conversations with the flock, I have made the decision to move forward with modifications beyond the minimal requirements of the Diocese. Allow me to spell those out for our church family. During passing of the peace, I am encouraging all present to consider continuing with verbal greetings but forgoing handshaking. Please be creative—wave, nod, wink, flash the two-finger peace sign, etc., just make an effort not to touch hands. Prior to the start of each service, I will continue to wash my hands with hot water and antibacterial soap. During Holy Communion, I will continue to use hand sanitizer at the start of the Eucharistic liturgy. For the foreseeable future, I will be the only person who prepares the Eucharistic elements before the service in order to minimize the number of people in contact with them. I assure you that I will thoroughly wash my hands and use sanitizer prior to preparation. I will also be the only one responsible after the service for securing the remaining elements. Furthermore, for the foreseeable future, we will only offer Holy Communion at the Altar (as we historically have done at all services other than the first Sunday of the month). By doing this, we will preclude the use of the communion trays which are passed from one person to the next for distribution, therehby drastically diminishing the number of persons touching the vessels. When you receive Holy Communion, only my sanitized hand and your hand will have touched the bread. Additionally, only the bread will be offered to communicants. The Church Universal has always taught that reception of the Blessed Elements under one species (i.e., either bread OR wine) is fully sufficient to benefit from the grace of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament. While the Eucharistic liturgy will continue to use the Cup, it will not be distributed for the foreseeable future. I want to also assure you that in between uses of the Holy Communion vessels, each will be appropriately washed and dried in advance of their next use. Finally, the holy water font at the entrance of the nave will be regularly changed and cleaned. It is my intention that after each day of worship, the water remaining in the font will disposed of reverently, the glass basin will be thoroughly washed and sanitized, and fresh water will replenish the font and be blessed before the next day of worship. All of these modifications will remain in effect until further notice. What should you do? You should do exactly what your personal healthcare provider recommends you do. If you have underlying medical conditions that place you in a higher at-risk category and you have not communicated with your healthcare provider about what if any modifications to your lifestyle may be appropriate for you, you should contact them to find out what they recommend and you should, without exception, follow those recommendations. If you are otherwise healthy, then continue to use common sense. The CDC has been extremely vocal about hand washing practices and staying home if you develop cold or flu-like symptoms. Please heed their advice. The CDC has a very informative, easy-to-understand section of their website set up specifically for the American public with great information and advice. It may be viewed here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/index.html That agency also has an area specifically dealing with best practices for your individual household. It may be viewed here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/index.html If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. In service to our Lord and His Church, I remain your humble servant, The Reverend Randall M. Graf Pastor |
Updates
While we may not be able to worship together at this time, we do not cease being the Church. Please check this page for ongoing updates concerning how Good Shepherd Church will continue operations during this challenging time. ArchivesLinks
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