May the Lord bless our Holy Week In Exile!
These days are difficult for the people of God. Not being able to sing our songs of Lent and Easter together and worship in the Lord's Sanctuary makes our hearts sad. It reminds me of the Psalm 137 and the lament of those who were exiled in Babylon as they remembered their homeland and the Temple in Jerusalem.
Psa. 137:1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
Psa. 137:4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
The hope is that our "exile" at home will at some point (sooner rather than later) be over and our full organ and voices will fill the sanctuary once again. Even as we might "celebrate" the Resurrection of our Lord (in a rough fashion) this coming Sunday, I am planning on a full "Celebration" of the day when we can gather together again as we love. Until that time, we must give thanks to God for what we have!
PRESENTLY PLANNED:
- 9am CCA Chapel Live Stream at this address: https://youtu.be/dduitjH6P94
- Maundy Thursday Devotion (Upload to this blog - so check back)
- 7pm Good Friday Tenebrae Live Stream at this address: https://youtu.be/t0beECeA1Eg
- 11am-7pm Saturday "NO Touch" Individual/Family Holy Communion - as we did last time:
Please approach the door only if the sign in the door indicates you may. Otherwise please wait for those inside to finish and come out.
The door will be opened FOR YOU so that you don't have to touch the handles.
Enter immediately to the sanctuary and stand at the altar (a chair will be there if you would like) for Confession/Absolution/Holy Communion.
Pastor Bjornstad will wear gloves and a mask.
Please do not stay if there is someone waiting to enter.
- Easter Sunday Morning "Parking Lot Service" is being planned! Although this practice IS more and more being practiced, a request of some "dispensation" or "assurance" from the Governor's office is currently being awaited on as to its acceptability from the government's point of view. We DEFINITELY do not want to abrogate any government order, or make that impression. Furthermore, we most assuredly do not want to do anything but keep everyone SAFE. SO, unless we hear negatively from the governor's office this is what we hope to accomplish on Sunday:
Cars will be ushered into the parking lot facing the "Altar" area (which will depend on the weather).
Please follow directions as they will park you six feet away from any other car.
You may open the window an inch or two in order to allow better sound, but please keep your window up.
We would LIKE to serve a store pre-packaged muffin and orange juice as a small token of our missed "Easter Breakfast," as well you are WELCOME to drop your offering into a basket on the way out of the parking lot. We will ALSO be streaming the service live at the same time at this address: https://youtu.be/BMRluYBkMiY for all who cannot come!
Finally, IF by chance the weather is SO bad, or the Governor tells us we cannot, we will repost this information to this blog!
We will look forward to shouting that longed for "He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!"
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