December 22, 2021
Dear Franciscans,
Firstly, let me offer the many blessings of the grace of God as we welcome the yearly worship of the birth of Jesus, the Christ. This is a beautiful and wonderous time of the church year.
I am writing to all of you to communicate how St. Francis will be worshipping over this weekend of December 24 through December 26 as we deal with another surge in COVID-19 under the conditions of the Omicron variant.
There will be no in-person services. We will be streaming via Facebook Live and Zoom Meeting for all the services scheduled for December 24 [3:00 PM, 5:00 PM, 8:00 PM, and 11:00 PM (streaming of the 8:00 PM service)]; December 25 at 11:00 AM, and December 26 at 10:00 AM.
These services will be versions of Spiritual Eucharist that we have used this past year, there will be a choir supporting the worship live from the church, and we will show our video pageant at 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
This choice is not what we had been hoping for, but for reasons of safety and concern for the most vulnerable in our community, the leadership believe this is the wisest course. It is also our fervent hope that this will be a very temporary adjustment in our worship life.
We are grateful for your patience, your support, and your earnest longing to be together. The timing of this surge is most unfortunate, but we are in a season of joyful thanks and wonder at God’s gracious presence in Jesus, the child born to be the savior of the world.
Yours, in Christ,
David+
Rector