 Psalm 96 begins with “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.” In Matthew 26:30 (and in an identical verse in Mark 14:26) we learn that Christ sang with his disciples. So why are we not allowed to sing in church?
As we talk, sing, cough, sneeze, or even just breath, germs within our lungs and respiratory passages can become aerosolized and expelled with our breath. This is probably one of the easiest ways for the COVID virus to be transmitted. Because when we sing we tend to breath deeper and expel air with greater force, singing can transmit germs and viruses greater distances. So out of concern for the safety of congregants, Bishop Michael Hanley has requested that we not sing in our services. In selecting music for our liturgies I have kept the Bishop’s wishes in mind. We are not singing those parts of the liturgy that we used to regularly sing such as the “Glory to God,” the Psalm, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and the Fraction Anthem. Instead we are speaking those parts of the liturgy. That way everybody in the congregation can fully participate in those elements of the liturgy. Hymns, however, do not really have a spoken equivalent. If we have a liturgy without singing, hymns are usually omitted. Recognizing that hymns are an important part of our liturgy for many congregants, I have chosen to include hymns in some way in each of our Sunday liturgies. For our recorded YouTube liturgies a small group of volunteers from the choir sing the hymns as the service is recorded, maintaining social distancing and wearing masks. At our 8 am Sunday morning Eucharist I play a short piece of music based on appropriate hymns with the hope that hearing the hymn melody within these pieces will remind you of the message the hymn brings to us. At the 10:30 Eucharist we have been using a Cantor to sing the hymns. To maintain the thirty feet of distance the Bishop has asked singers to maintain, our Cantor’s have been singing in the hall located just behind the organ console. A microphone allows us to hear the Cantor through the sound system. If you are worshiping at the church, we ask that you do not join in the singing with your voice, but hope you can sing along in your heart. If you are listening to the service at home, please feel free to join in the singing. Dr. Jon B. Holland, Director of Music You can watch the live broadcast of our 10:30 am service this week by clicking on the link.
Watch Live 10:30 am Eucharist And, you can watch a replay of the 10:30 am service, by clicking the lower link. Watch a Replay of our 10:30 am Eucharist Eucharist Bulletin Or, you can watch a pre-recorded service on You Tube, which includes a bulletin. Prerecorded service. Over the next few weeks, we will be phasing this service out and moving primarily to the live service. While we know that many of you prefer this service to the live service, our theology calls us to experience Communion together as a community, and the live broadcast more closely replicates our call to community. Finally, you can join a live Zoom morning prayer service at 9:00 am, by clicking the link or by accessing the call with the details below. Join Morning Prayer A bulletin for morning prayer is here: Morning Prayer Bulletin Meeting ID: 413 422 335 Password: 939504 We will also have an 12 noon Zoom coffee hour/congregational meeting, which you can join by clicking the link. Join Coffee Hour Going forward, we will also encourage you to bring your questions about the service or the sermon to this gathering. We recently met in person (scandalous, but safely six feet apart!) to review requests received. You may remember last September, when we blessed backpacks. NW Housing Alternatives has again requested $1,000 to fund a School Supply Drive, which will purchase backpacks for local kids. While plans for school re-openings remain in-flux, backpacks never go out of style and can be used in future years. You may be wondering what you can do to help in these turbulent times and your donation will help keep kids focused and energized about school! Directions: 1) Donate online through our PayPal site, plus send an email at saintfranciswilsonville@gmail.com, noting this is for the MDE: NW Housing Alternatives request, (since there is no memo line on the PayPal form). 2) Mail a check to Saint Francis, PO Box 445, Wilsonville, OR 97070. In the memo line write ‘MDE: NW Housing Alternatives.’ Thank you for making a difference! More information will come in early fall about our MDE plans for the holidays. We know the need will be much larger than in the past.  Time: 6:30 pm (one hour before Compline) Thursday, July 9 Discussion topic: "What was best job advice ever given to you?" Logging into Zoom. Questions or to join: Gary Thompson: gsjayhawk@frontier.com  Many of you, children and adults, were filling Mite Boxes during Lent as a way of praying and caring. Our goal was to raise enough for perhaps the donation of a goat to a family in a Third World country. Last year we sent in funds for a hive of honey bees and a flock of ducks. The animals are used to provide livelihood for families. If there are Mite Boxes out there please return them soon, and we will make a family's life better. You may also make a contribution to this fund by using our Pay Pal account below. Please send a email to the church office stating so, as there is no designation line in PayPal: saintfranciswilsonville@gmail.com Many thanks!  You can watch the live broadcast of our 10:30 am service this week by clicking on the link.
And, you can watch a replay of the 10:30 am service, by clicking the lower link. Watch Live 10:30 am Eucharist Or, you can watch a pre-recorded service on You Tube, which includes a bulletin, and the link is to the right. Watch a Replay of our 10:30 am Eucharist Over the next few weeks, we will be phasing this service out and moving primarily to the live service. While we know that many of you prefer this service to the live service, our theology calls us to experience Communion together as a community, and the live broadcast more closely replicates our call to community. A bulletin for Eucharist is also here: Eucharist Bulletin You can join a live Zoom morning prayer service at 9:00 am, by clicking on the button to the right or by accessing the call with the details below. Join Morning Prayer A bulletin for morning prayer is here: Morning Prayer Bulletin Meeting ID: 413 422 335 Password: 939504 We will also have an 12 noon Zoom coffee hour/congregational meeting, which you can join by clicking the button to the right. Going forward, we will also encourage you to bring your questions about the service or the sermon to this gathering. Join Coffee Hour Many thanks to Tom Over for his ingenuity and just plain hard work rebuilding the fountain in the Bell Tower Garden. The new design will be easier to maintain and, hopefully, add soothing sound to help mask noise from the freeway. Thank you as well to the Memorial Garden Committee members who pruned, spread bark mulch and planted the beautiful display of annuals in the East Memorial Garden. Restoration work and planting will continue at the appropriate time. Thanks to all involved. Time: 6:30 pm (one hour before Compline) Thursday, July 2 Discussion topic: "Good things come in small packages, especially when its jewelry" Come with your meal and a piece of jewelry that has a story to tell. ***Note: An email will come from the church with the information needed for logging into Zoom. Questions or to join: Sandi or Gary Thompson: gsjayhawk@frontier.com  Dear Friends in Christ,
Last week , the broadcast of our 10:30 am service via YouTube Live went off very smoothly. Fingers crossed for the same this week. Watch Live 10:30 am Eucharist A bulletin for Eucharist is also here:Eucharist Bulletin Or, you can watch a pre-recorded service on You Tube, which includes a bulletin. Over the next few weeks, we will be phasing out the prerecorded serviceand moving primarily to the live service. While we know that many of you prefer this service to the live service, our theology calls us to experience Communion together as a community, and the live broadcast more closely replicates our call to community. You can join a live Zoom morning prayer service at 9:00 am, by clicking on the button to the right or by accessing the call with the details below. Join Morning Prayer A bulletin for morning prayer is here: Morning Prayer Bulletin Meeting ID: 413 422 335 Password: 939504 We will also have an 12 noon Zoom coffee hour/congregational meeting, which you can join by clicking the button to the right. Going forward, we will also encourage you to bring your questions about the service or the sermon to this gathering. Join Coffee Hour  Over the last several months, we have explored a whole series of new digital ministries. With our YouTube Eucharist and Zoom prayers, we have been able to reach each other, as well as many new people. Our digital ministry has been a form of both outreach and evangelism.
Over the last two weeks, we have been streaming the 10:30 am Sunday Eucharist on YouTube, and we have been working with a wonderful videographer, Michael Calcagno. He has been offering us a massive discount for his services, but we know that we cannot expect Michael's generosity to last forever. Therefore, the vestry authorized a Video Ministry committee. The committee is tasked with discerning the best audiovisual solutions for St. Francis. The committee is chaired by Mary Stewart, and it met for the first time today. As part of that meeting, it was very clear that we will need people who are willing to run the new audiovisual equipment, whatever we purchase. We are looking at solutions that will be relatively easy to run, but we will still need "digital ministers" if we are to proceed with this project and continue to offer our digital ministry. So, I am writing to see if you might be interested in serving as a digital minister. To begin, we will only need digital ministers at the 10:30 am Sunday service. We will provide the training, and we are hoping that people could join us for our Video Ministry meetings so that they can help us select the proper equipment. I know that this might all seem daunting. You might not think of yourself as a "tech" person. I did not think of myself as a "tech" person when all of this started, and yet we have managed to stumble through, because of the grace of God. At St. Francis, we are abundantly blessed by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will lead us all through this next chapter and into our digital ministry. If you might feel called to this ministry, please email me, revbrendanb@gmail.com. |