A Shift In Our Worship

Hi Church Family,

*This is a more lengthy email than usual; please also check out the video, which elaborates on this announcement. 

It’s been eight months since we last worshipped as one body at the Phillips Event Center; three months since we began outdoor Sunrise Services on the patio. Through this time we’ve streamed a service online (with some hiccups along the way, especially early on!). This has been and continues to be a remarkable season to do life together as a church!

As we continue to monitor the public health situation here in Travis County, as the weather shifts, and as we converse with other church leaders in our diocese, our leadership has been prayerfully discussing what it means for us to best live into our vision and values as we transition to a new liturgical year. With the public health considerations, our commitment to embodied worship together and finite resources in terms of staff hours, there is no easy solution. I’m grateful for the good and faithful work our staff and Parish Council have put into these discussions. We are blessed with a great team of people. Also, we are all deeply grateful for the promise of Jesus’ Lordship and the Spirit’s presence in leading us.

Sunday, November 22nd is Christ the King Sunday, the final Sunday in the liturgical year. I want to communicate to you a shift in our corporate worship offerings, which will begin that Sunday and carry us through the Advent season and into Epiphany. On the 22nd we will be shifting our worship offerings to two, in-person services at 9:00am and 11:00am at the PEC, while shifting our online live-stream to 11:00am. 

The 9:00 am service will take place on the patio, similar to our current Sunrise Services. However, the service will offer a full liturgy, including the elements that we have left out up to this point (basically the Creed and prayers of the people). We’ll continue to sing with masks but will include more songs, similar to our worship prior to the pandemic. This will be the full COTC service we have come to appreciate over the past years.

Our 11:00 am service will be indoor at the PEC and offer the full liturgy, with protocols similar to the outdoor service in terms of wearing masks throughout the service and social distancing. Doors in the ballroom will be kept open, and HEPA air purifiers will be on throughout the room. This service will be capped at 50 people, in a room with capacity for over 300 this will allow for a great deal of distance socially.

At this time neither service will offer refreshments or childcare. We are working on these possibilities for the months ahead. Sarah will continue to provide worksheets and single-use toys (Play-dough!) for children.

Both services will require sign ups; we anticipate each service to run about 60-70 minutes. Restrooms will be available.Should it rain on a Sunday, we’ll send an email by 8:00 am cancelling the 9:00 am service. We’ll have more information about sign-up procedures, along with links next week.

We will be live-streaming our indoor service from the Phillips Event Center at 11:00am. We are confident we can stream a high-quality service to those who cannot join us in person. Some flexibility will be necessary in the early weeks as work out the kinks (see aforementioned hiccups); thank you for your patience with this. I’m grateful for the ways this plan allows our whole community to continue to participate in worship, while lessening the burden on our staff, accommodating shifts in the weather, and leading us well into this new church year.

As the second wave of the virus roils across the country, there is a definite possibility we will need to step back in some ways and return to a previous stage for our gathered worship. At the same time, as we approach the Advent and Christmas seasons, the need for us to press into the rhythms of worship and devotion is acute; this plan represents our leadership’s best effort to encourage us toward that good end.

Thanks for reading this long email! If you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Father Nick or me. We’re looking forward to visiting with you in the coming weeks!

Grace and peace to you, body and soul.

Peter+