Post-Election Prayer Service Nov. 4 at 4 p.m.

Knowing we will need a place to offer prayers for our nation, our communities, and ourselves, we invite you to join The Episcopal Church Department of Faith Formation on Wednesday, November 4 for a time of prayer at 4:00 p.m. (service will be no longer than 30 minutes). Sign up to receive the Zoom link.

CE-Net: Intergenerational Faith Formation

Join CE-Net (the Diocesan Christian Education Network) on Thursday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. as we have a conversation about intergenerational faith formation with Betsy Dishman, GenOn Ministries Training Coordinator, and Liz Perraud, GenOn Ministries’ Executive Director. GenOn Ministries believes nurturing people of all generations into an abundant life-giving relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the most important thing the church does. Their mission is to partner with churches to nurture, grow, and deepen intergenerational Christ-centered community. Their vision is a world filled with thriving Christian communities. Visit genonministries.org to learn more about GenOn Ministries. Betsy Dishman and Liz Perraud each has more than 30 years of experience in the Christian faith form field and share a passion for intergenerational formation. CE-Net invites you to be part of the important conversation about intergenerational faith formation. Click here to register.

EYC Game Night and upcoming events

Don’t forget that we are doing youth Zoom game nights on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 5 p.m. For the two Thursdays in November we will be playing Among Us. Come join us this Thursday to figure out who is the most suspect among us!! All youth are invited! Click here to join us.

 

Things to look forward to!

 

“Learn to Breathe in Covid” Youth Gathering - November 21 at 2:00 p.m.

Join us for a special virtual gathering where we will be discussing self-care with an expert and talking through how to support loved ones during this emotionally exhausting time in our lives. High school is tough, especially during a pandemic. Our hope is to provide a safe place for students to come and discuss the challenges that they are facing and walk about with some insight on concrete ways to handle those situations. Register here.

 

Happening Reunion -  Dec 6 at 5:00 p.m.

Join us for a special prayer service where will join in community and prayer for this season that we are in. While we miss seeing all of you in person during this time, we are excited about seeing you in this virtual space to catch up and pray for the upcoming year. Sign up here. We are also putting together a short video to the song “Give Yourself to Love” that we would love to feature you in. Please send us clips of you singing to this classic Happening song, or acting out how yourself to love, or even photos from your Happening experience. You can send all your videos and photos to mdern@diosova.org or upload them here.

 

After registering for one or both of these events, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Chanco’s Annual Fund makes the difference

Dear friends, please prayerfully consider Chanco in your year-end giving. Without our usual spring or fall retreat business and without normal summer camp operations for the first time in 53 years, your Annual Fund gift this year is essential! Chanco’s board is committed to maintaining our year-round staff so when this pandemic is behind us, we are ready to resume normal programming. In the meantime, we are offering socially distanced programming, working on property improvements, and finding creative ways to keep Chanco’s ministry moving forward in these challenging times. Thank you for your gift today to support Chanco! Click here to make your easy on line gift or mail your check made out to Chanco with “Annual Fund” in the memo line to 394 Floods Drive, Spring Grove, VA 23881. Questions? Contact Development Director Talley Banazek at 804-399-4019 or talley@banazek.com. Thank you for your continued support of Chanco on the James!

The Good Book Club returns in Epiphany 2021

The Good Book Club, from Forward Movement, is an invitation to all Episcopalians to join in reading scripture. During Epiphany 2021, we are invited to read the entire Gospel of Mark. The Gospel is split into daily readings and everyone is invited to follow along. Click here for ideas for getting people of all ages in your context involved.

Guidelines for limited choral singing during Advent and Christmas

At a recent meeting of the Medical/Legal subgroup of Bishop Haynes’s Advisory Panel for Re-Gathering for Worship, musicians presented some information on a breakthrough that will enable some limited choral singing as we move into the Advent and Christmas singing.

The breakthrough is the design and availability of “Singer’s Masks,” a mask especially made for singers that will allow them ample room to sing comfortably while protecting those around them from potential infection due to droplets and aerosols. The masks are available from a number of sources, including the ones listed here:

• www.broadwayreliefproject.com/singersmask
• www.mymusicfolders.com/product/resonance-singers-mask-with-disposable-biofilters/

Here are some YouTube links showing various singers using them:

• www.youtu.be/mcW1WJ2-mqs
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xbGfY8jes
• www.youtu.be/N1NL0ycQf-Q?t=772
• www.vimeo.com/466160774#t=360s
• www.christchurchgreenwich.org/evensong-livestream/

After listening to the musicians, the panel made the following recommendations with respect to guidelines for choral singing:

• Singers may sing in virtual or in-person services provided they are spaced (shoulder to shoulder) at least six feet away from each other and are all facing/singing in the same direction.
• Singers must be 20-30 feet away from any other person in the congregation
• Singers must wear a mask specially made for singers such as one obtained from one of the websites above.
• The number of singers who can safely sing is dependent on the space and configuration of each church building, provided guidelines number 1-3 are followed.
• Congregational singing is still not permitted at this time.

While these guidelines do not allow for everyone to sing, they do enable us to move in the direction of bringing choral music back into the church.

Please contact the diocesan office if you have any questions.

As COVID-19 cases rise

As we move into fall and winter months, we are unfortunately seeing a rise in the number of Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. This is of course not the direction we wanted to go. Many are beginning to feel anxious again and to ask questions regarding whether or not congregations should be gathering for worship. At this point, the diocesan office would like to offer a few general guidelines to clergy and other church leadership as you make decisions regarding worship in your own particular context. We encourage you to watch the numbers in your area, to consider the make-up of your own congregation or any other factors that are specific to your worshiping community. For example, if overall the number of infections are not rising in your community but you know that there are significant outbreaks in schools and that your faith community has a number of young families in membership, this may impact whether or not you open for worship. Likewise, if your community contains many older people whose health is fragile, you may make a different decision about opening for worship.

Here are a couple of websites that we offer to help inform you. Both of these websites offer information for the whole state of Virginia and also according to each county. If, after considering the information for your local area, you are still undecided, please feel free to call the Diocesan Office and we will help you process the information in order to arrive at a decision.

• The first helpful website is the Virginia Department of Health’s COVID Dashboard which allows you to check the status in particular cities.
• The second website is The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Clergy and lay leaders are to be commended for their excellent work in providing virtual worship when in-person worship is not available, and we encourage you to continue those offerings. We also remind you that the bishop has issued guidelines for how to administer Holy Communion more widely during a time of pandemic, and those guidelines and can be found here.