New for the Church, 7/13/21

Good morning, Church!

I’m headed off on vacation in a bit, but I wanted to drop a quick line and let you know the results of our rummage sale. 

Beth Grace reported on Sunday morning that we made $2,025!! Wowwieee! Isn’t that amazing? What a gift! 

I want to give a shout out to everyone who came and helped make this possible. Beth Grace and Sue Waters– thank you for your organizing power and dedication to see this through. 

Thanks to Ron and Beth Grace’s son and grandsons, who set up tables and hauled things from the basement. Thanks to Lynn (Beth Grace’s daughter), Sharon, Renee, Gail, Terry, Dale, Robin, Pat, Lydia, Sarah, Isaiah, Levi, Katrina, Cyndy, Julie, Cynthia, and others for coming to get things organized, to work the sale, and then to help take everything down. (Am I missing anyone?) 

It takes a village to pull off a rummage sale, and this week the whole village showed up! 

Friends, some of you are feeling frustrated that we’re still wearing masks during Sunday worship, so I wanted to bring those frustrations to the light and explain why Session has not yet changed our mask policy. To date, St. Lawrence County is only at a 60% vaccination rate, which isn’t at the level needed to reach herd immunity (experts say we need to be at 70-90% vaccination rates to achieve that). The Delta strain is causing a rise in cases in places where herd immunity has not been reached, and while we have folks in our congregation who haven’t received the vaccine, and because we also have folks who are seriously immuno-compromised, Session feels strongly that we need to continue to mask during worship. 

As the body of Christ, it’s our collective job to make sure that church is a safe place for everybody to be. I know that it’s frustrating to have to don a mask if you’re vaccinated, especially if you’ve grown accustomed to not wearing one in other parts of your life. But our region is not yet out of the woods, and so the needs of the whole still outweigh the needs of the individual. 

Does that make sense?

Alright dear Hearts, I’ll be back in two weeks. May God bless you until I see you again!

In Faith,
Pastor Katrina

p.s. A happy birthday to Helen Brouwer, who turned 90 this last week!