News for the Church, 11/19/21

Good evening, Church family!

Today has been a lovely fall day, offering the full array of possibilities— sunshine, a brief smattering of snow, and a spectacular full moon. Did you get excited to see snow falling from the sky? I must admit that I did!

Here’s the news for this week.

Pledge Cards

Pledge cards were mailed out to your homes this week. Please be praying about what God might be asking of you, as you consider your finances for the coming year. A church functions financially on the giving of its people, and we are no exception. Every dollar counts! And so do you! 

To return your pledge cards to the church, you may either drop them in the mail or in the offering plate on Sunday. We ask that you send them in by December 15th.

Learn to Sing

For those of you who showed up to PIC’s zoom event “Learn to Sing” only to find it had been canceled, not to fear. It was postponed due to illness. More details will be forthcoming.

Singing in Church

Since returning to the sanctuary for worship in May, many of us have still felt a partial emptiness in our hearts. The reason being? No singing. One of Covid’s cruelest consequences has been that singing has been a dangerous form of viral spread. 

Some have wondered, however, why we have continued to refrain from singing even while most of us are vaccinated. We have kept to our rule this long because we have a number of immuno-compromised people in our congregation. But both science and lived experience seem to be showing that masked singing in smaller groups is less dangerous than once thought. Session met last night to discuss all of this, and after talking with the most immuno-compromised people in our congregation, we have decided that the risk is worth taking to begin singing once again!

We will hold off a few more weeks, just to be sure Covid numbers aren’t going to spike through the roof with this more recent uptick in numbers (our county is still at at 6.48% infection rate), but barring any massive new transmissions in our area, we will begin to sing again starting on Christmas Eve.

Won’t that be wonderful?! Just in time to sing Silent Night! 

Giving Thanks 

Friends, this next week is Thanksgiving, and I wonder what you will be doing to celebrate. Getting together with family? With friends? Staying home for a quiet, restful day? No matter how you spend your day, I pray that you will nurture an awareness of gratefulness in this time. Life is still hard for many of us right now, but God’s presence remains with us– offering us hope, joy, and peace. 

Psalms reminds us: 

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

~Psalm 100:1-5

May we revel in the goodness and the steadfast love of our God this week. 

In Joy,
Pastor Katrina