Dear Friends,

In Acts 11, believers in Antioch extended generous care to their fellow believers in Judea during a time of famine. We see this instinct throughout all of Church history, and I am confident it will continue today as we find creative ways to gather online and serve our brothers and sisters affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Assessing the situation as your bishop, I’ve sought the best counsel I could from top doctors. Even these medical experts are not entirely sure what’s going on or how to predict where this virus will go. To date, I have felt comfortable with the common-sense guidelines we’ve been using for Communion and passing the peace, etc. But now it seems more is required, based on the CDC’s recommendations for social distancing (the six-foot rule).

As a result of the research I’ve done, consultation with doctors and conversations with key Rectors, I have recommended that all C4SO churches stop gathering on Sundays for a period of weeks and find alternative ways to meet and serve your community. The experts unanimously conclude that social distancing is the main medicine right now. You may or may not agree with this course of action, but I ask you to please support your Rectors as they make hard choices, both now and in the days to come. We must will the good of others, especially the elderly and immune-compromised, in our cities (Jer 29:7).

I encourage you to see this as a missional opportunity. If we cease gathering for a period of weeks, we have not stopped being the Church; we are ever more poignantly the Church, serving others by denying ourselves. Love (2 Cor 5:14) and service for the most vulnerable (Romans 15:1) are the reasons we are changing our behavior, not pressure or fear.

As a lay person, you can help your Rector find ways to care for the vulnerable in your community. For instance, you can develop a Crisis Care Team to do errands and grocery shopping for elderly people who are afraid to go out. You can serve children from local elementary schools who are missing meals due to school closures. You can take your place as chaplains, healers and caregivers to those “no one else will touch.” People will be looking to you, as members of the Church, for God’s consolation, peace, joy and love. We are not abandoning the playing field. We are restructuring to serve well in this moment in history.

At a time like this, it’s normal to feel confused and scared. The situation is indeed serious, but I invite you to commit to practicing the “sacrament of this present moment”; find the goodness of God in this era, neither longing for the past or worrying about the future. The “present” is the only space in which we have to love God and neighbor.

I commend to you this prayer from my friend W. David O. Taylor:

Oh Lord, you who are the refuge of the poor and needy, we ask that you would save us from the pestilence that stalks in the darkness and the plague that destroys at midday. Be our sun and shield. Be our fortress. Be our comfort this day. May we not fear any evil but rather trust in your might to save and your wisdom to guide, so that we may rest always in the shadow of the Almighty. In the name of the One who heals our diseases. Amen. 

For updates and tips on being the Church in these challenging times, visit our web page.

Grace and peace,

Bishop Todd Hunter