Dear Friends of the Wholeness Services,
In recent weeks the Serenity Prayer has taken on a new twist for me, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” We are all living through different times than we have previously known. Acceptance, change, and wisdom can look a little different now. Someone characterized this Covid-19 time as the Great Pause. For decades I have wanted to pause life to catch my breath. There is no pause button on life, so I never got my chance, but with commerce shut down and stay-at-home orders issued, the last 2½ months are the closest thing to a life pause as I can imagine, and it has caused great chaos, loss, and fear for many. As our country comes out of pause to reopen, God needs us listening and following His lead. God needs our continued discernment, courage, wisdom, and serenity.
As with most things during this time, the Georgetown Ecumenical Wholeness Services is adapting to the times. Last month the service leaders forwarded information to Ginger, and she created our first virtual real-time service on April 26. A number of people joined us on Facebook for the service. Ginger’s creative services have expanded, and we now have a YouTube channel. We CHANGED the date of the May service to the 31st from the 24th. Here is an excerpt from Ginger’s email, “We will broadcast the service again at the exact day and time that it would have occurred in person: May 31, 2020 at 6:30 pm. There will be 15 minutes of prelude and welcome before that, so the broadcast will actually start at 6:15. The broadcast will premiere on our YouTube channel, and it will be simulcast to our Facebook page, Taizé Prayers: Georgetown Ecumenical Wholeness Service (On Facebook) as it happens. Worshipers may attend in either place. We found that a rich community experience happened on Facebook, where we have many followers, with greetings, chat, and encouragements during the live stream comments. That same experience will be made available again.”
Here’s our new YouTube channel: Georgetown Ecumenical Wholeness Service (On YouTube)
This is an exciting step for us to stay in community with you and offer healing and wholeness as best as we can. Our theme May 31st is Answering God’s Call, and I will be bringing the message. Please pray for all of us as we seek God’s guidance as we prepare our parts, learn to video ourselves and then successfully get the files to Ginger. Along these lines we don’t know what the future holds. The nature of the disease suggests that enclosed gatherings of people are among the most fruitful places for the virus to spread. This being the case, when churches will reopen is unknown. To that end we are committed to continue to offer virtual real-time services. If this becomes the case, to accomplish this we will need a volunteer video team or 3 or 4 people. So please pray for our faithfulness and for volunteers who can make the services as meaningful as possible. Also please pray for the concerns of all the members of our community and for the healing of the world.
My prayer for each of you (and those you love) is that you be adorned with the whole armor of God and that you be able to stand firm in the midst of all this chaos, struggle, evil and unknown – so fasten the belt of truth around your waist, put on the breastplate of righteousness, shod your feet with shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace, put on the helmet of salvation, take the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
God bless you and keep you,
Rev. Dr. Ann Hagmann
