As the old saying goes, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." After sending out my plan for services from now until Christmas Eve yesterday, I attended a meeting with our Bishops yesterday afternoon, at which we clergy were informed that all outdoor services are now limited to no more than 25 people. Indoor services, of course, are still prohibited. On top of this, there are now new restrictions when it comes to how Communion is to be distributed; at the present moment, I'm awaiting a response from the Diocese to clear up what those restrictions are, as I was not fully clear on a couple of things from yesterday's talk.
All of this is to say that I am going to need to amend the schedule of services that I put out yesterday. If we can still celebrate Communion outdoors, our services will be limited to the first 25 people who RSVP, and I may need to ask that if you sign up one week, you allow others to sign up at the next opportunity. Regardless of this, I can confidently tell you that we will continue with streamed Morning Prayer services.
Also, and this is perhaps the bigger issue that I'm concerned about, if we do an outdoor Christmas Eve service, which I teased yesterday, it will now be limited to 25 or fewer people. So, in order for me to allow as many of you as may desire to attend an outdoor Christmas service to attend, I will need to possibly schedule multiple services on Christmas Eve, along with having time to stream one from inside the church.
To that end, I would like to ask for your help. Would you please email me or Madeline in the next week or so and let us know if you would like to attend an outdoor Christmas Eve service if one was made available? I am making no guarantees on it happening right now, but it would be helpful for me to know your interest. Once I have a list of all who would like to attend, I will look to schedule service times and assign 25 or fewer to each service.
I apologize for the up and down of all of this. With so many things changing right now, flexibility is key. I appreciate your understanding and patience.
Stay safe and well.
Yours in Christ,
Kyle+