We all want some measure of certainty, don’t we? I mean, most of us live our lives balancing planning and spontaneity. It’s fun to get together with friends on the spur of the moment. Or to eat whatever the farmers at the market are displaying this week, whatever our gardens are yielding. It’s great fun to chuck a job of work that really can wait until tomorrow and instead to go for a nice walk in the park or along a favorite trail. All we need to be sure of in these moments is that life is presenting an option and we are seizing the opportunity.

And mostly, we want “planning” to govern things like our pay checks and our bill payments. We want our cars to start and the bus to arrive on time. We want the roof to keep the rain out and the windows to open easily to a cool breeze. We want the doctor to not keep us waiting and to give us the news we want to hear. In these and other such things, we want certainty, and we grow weary and impatient when the bank deposits are late and the roof leaks and the bus doesn’t show. We plan and prepare. We want the planning to match exactly the desired outcome.

While we may be certain in our own planning, we can never be sure when factors out of our control intervene. And, irritatingly, we can always be sure that something is out of our control, despite all our planning. We are so often forced into spontaneity, made to adapt and pivot and take a different course, one where we are much less certain of the outcome.

And so it is with re-opening to in-person worship and gatherings at the Fellowship. The pandemic is not over, our unvaccinated children are more vulnerable than ever, and even vaccinated adults are at risk of re-infection from the Delta Variant. And so, Staff, the Re-opening Task Force of the Board, and the Tech Task Force of the Board all plan as fully as possible for being together in person starting on September 12.  And, should cases, hospitalizations, and sadly, deaths begin to rise again we will pivot back to planning solely for virtual church life, as we must do to honor our covenant and to care for the most vulnerable first.

We are weary of Zoom life, but it does give us connection that we need and crave. If you have any suggestions or ideas for how to make virtual fellowship better, please reach out to Staff and leaders. It will help us be better and make the Fellowship better for more of us. May we seek creativity rather than certainty, as you remember today and every day that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so and may it be so.

Blessings, Rev. Rita