Dear BFCC Community,
We do not give up lightly and usually our rule of thumb is “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:30.
In light of the ever-developing news of the coronavirus outbreak, we began to adjust worship for this Sunday again yesterday morning, deciding that we would not print bulletins, use the hymnal, or have greeters in the Narthex. We even planned to livestream the Sunday morning for those people that could not make it.
Then the news started to roll in. We got messages from Rev. Sue Artt, our Conference Minister, with a statement from the board of the Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Church of Christ: Here now, the unanimous statement of the Rocky Mountain Conference Board of Directors:
Given the World Health Organization’s call for “urgent and aggressive action”, to help stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus, also known as corona, the RMC BOD encourages each congregation to take a proactive approach to prevention, and recommends that churches and associations – and particularly those in larger metropolitan areas – consider providing electronic worship services and/or postponing activities through the end of March.
By 3pm on Thursday afternoon, public schools were canceling after school activities, colleges and universities were going to online schooling, federal government agencies working from home with no travel for thirty days and Broadway canceled all shows till mid-April. We continued to talk about the possibilities of not having worship in-person Sunday morning. Mandy shared an analogy: when an ambulance is rushing to an emergency, we pull over. We take a few minutes out of our day in order to make way for the safety of our most vulnerable. This is what it means to cancel worship - we are to take pause and pull over to give space for those that are sick.
Thursday late afternoon, the Church Board met via a Zoom meeting to discuss the possibilities. We decided that we will cancel worship for Sunday, March 15 & Sunday, March 22, with March 30, pending. We will create and post a Worship Video and send it out via email, Facebook and post it on the Website. The First Step Preschool will extend their Spring break and close the preschool beginning this Monday, March 16-March 30.
Financially, the church is doing well. The majority of our pledges are coming in on time or ahead. This year, we had more pledging units than years passed. With faith and generous givers, the church will be okay. The preschool is thriving and we believe these weeks will only be a small bump in our journey.
I am thrilled to announce that our church PayPal account is up and running on our church website. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page and press the donate button. We have also created a church Venmo account. Simply download the Venmo App on your smartphone and search the church. You will recognize our logo! These are two easy ways to give your financial offering each week - especially if you did not pledge. We will see our biggest loss in plate offerings as people suspend their church visiting this Spring. In the church, we learn to give our money, our family time, our care, our love, our resources, and our attentiveness to each other. We keep eachother from falling, from going hungry, from losing our dignity. Our hope is to continue this important and faithful practice each week even when we gather in Spirit from the comfort and safety of our homes.
This is an uneasy time for most of us. We are all creatures of habit and our daily routines will need to be adjusted. We are also aware that there are people that will suffer losses because jobs will be affected. Let us know if we can help you through a small Pastor’s Discretionary Fund.
For the next few Sundays, we will create a Worship Video. We have never done this before but I suspect it will be about twenty minutes long. We will send it out via email and put it on our website and Facebook page. This is our attempt to provide some Spiritual nourishment, religious practices, ritual and prayer. And, though we will all be watching it individually from our homes, we will be connected through the same practice and worship leaders. In addition, we share a link to a blog post on children and the coronavirus. https://buildfaith.org/coronavirus-anxiety-children-and-the-church/?fbclid=IwAR1_LKqbCSjbun-P_gDQctMZ7c4BnScGkOA-TuRsNRBstk0jOdIoos8ivL8
Marta and Mandy will be available during this time. If you have questions or concerns, or just need someone to pray with, please give one of us a call. (Marta -719-306-4037 , Mandy - 719.360.8646) Especially during this challenging time, we need to take care of each other. Please let us know what we can do for you.
With love and deep gratitude,
Marta & Mandy