Message from Pastor Erin This week, Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern Illinois Conference of the UMC and a ReTurn Team released a plan to help congregations like ours consider how and when to safely and slowly reopen our church building for worship, activities and renters of our building. Ravenswood Fellowship UMC assembled our own team of individuals (who signed up for our After Covid-19 Teams) to help us work through this document and many others offered by legislators and health organizations. We are in the process of drafting a plan to return to worship in our lovely building. It might not be for awhile. We probably won't celebrate my last Sunday with you all in person, but we will return to the beautiful space we love someday. That's the good news.
The difficult news is that our worship and time together will look very different for (probably) a very long time. As our work, our bodies, and our systems adjust to life after a pandemic, our time as a worshipping community will require adjustment, as well. And we will continue to embrace and struggle through these changes together because we believe that we are making sacrifices that will protect neighbors and strangers from suffering and even death.
At our "Discussing Reopening Team," the group discusses how to practice communion when we cannot share a cup. We talk about how to pass the peace and what does sharing peace look like when we must maintain 6-feet of distance? Fellowship and food are probably not going to happen for a long time. And what kind of celebration will we have when we are able to sit and eat and drink together once again? I imagine it will be a lot like God's banquet God has planned when death is no more, like the one described in the United Methodist Church service of Holy Communion which says, "By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet."
Yes, things will be different for awhile longer. We will have to reimagine what our Christian community will look like after this era. And, with God's help, we will be together again sometime soon.
Oh! And worship on Sunday (5.31)?! It's Pentecost, the celebration of Holy Spirit. We wear RED on Pentecost Sunday. Please wear red! Or make your Zoom background red (learn how to change your Zoom background here)! Or wave a red flag and celebrate that we are not left alone. Jesus said, "The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you" (John 14:26). | 
