From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the most obvious changes to church during the pandemic has been the change from in-person to online services. A less obvious change has been the vocabulary we use to describe how we take part in worship. People are much more likely to say they “viewed” or “watched” a service online than that they “attended” it or “worshiped” online.

Of course some of this change is perfectly natural — attendance means showing up. Right?

I have a fairly short attention span. My mind tends to jump around a bit during even the most engaging of things. I struggle with online services. It is hard for me to “attend” them let alone feel like it’s worship. I don’t suspect that I am alone in this feeling.

Even though it’s pretty easy to “show up” online I think it’s pretty tough to figure out how to be present. 

Going to church is a routine most of us are familiar with. It has a rhythm we know and understand. However, that was not always the case for many. For many folks, coming to church was something that was daunting and they were beset with a variety of anxieties and unfamiliarities. 

When we started going to church in New Haven there was the question of what time to arrive. Where to park? What to wear (I was always careful not to wear shoes that squeaked on Communion Sundays)? What time should we get up, have breakfast, read the paper? Where to sit? When to stand, kneel, or sit? Greet the priest or sneak out? Read something else during the sermon? Chance a whisper about something funny?

There are lots of questions about how to participate and how to be a part of community that we learn over time so that we settle into worship and are able to be a part of it rather than just watching it happen. 

Online church is the same for many of us now. There are all sorts of new questions and we have to find new ways to “come to church.” It also requires us to learn new ways to be the church. We learn to ways to take part in formation, discussion, study, pastoral care, and much more. We are all learning how to show up as if we are newcomers. 

I’d encourage you, if you haven’t already, to make space and time to show up. To clear a space and your mind to be present. Pray before it starts. Be ready to actively listen and pray. 

As hard as coming to a new church might be I think becoming active listeners, active pray-ers, and active worshipers online is even harder. It takes all the things we might have known about coming to church and sets it aside so we have to train new habits and ways of being present. Fundamentally though, it is a very familiar act. We gather as we can, pray as we have learned, listen with open hearts, and seek to live our faith when the service comes to an end.

We will be gathered together again. We will sing and pray in the familiar ways. My prayer is that when we do we will also have picked up some new skills along the way making us even more prepared to worship attentively and to welcome strangers who haven’t learned all the moves yet.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert

PS: In my Daily Bread this past Sunday I wrote about the decisions around re-gathering and how we might think about faithfully following where the Spirit leads. It might be a nice companion piece to this one if you haven’t read it already and it is available here.