Dear St. John’s community, 

I greet you in the name of God: Lover, Beloved and Love. 

Today we heard about new restrictions for our health region in light of increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in the province. I encourage you to follow these new rules as diligently as you can as part of our Christian calling to “love one another” (John 13:34) and to care for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40). 

Many different kinds of gatherings and activities have been put on hold for a 2-week period. Religious gatherings, however, have been exempted from this. I have been pleased with how we have worked together in the past few weeks to resume some in-person services with new safety protocols. Nevertheless, the Wardens and I have made the decision to pause in-person gatherings for the next two weeks. This will affect the 10am Eucharist scheduled for November 22nd, as well as the 5pm Night Prayer services scheduled for November 8th, 15th, and 22nd. We have made this decision as an act of solidarity with our wider community, and to do our part to help curb the spread of this virus in our region. 

We will continue during this time to offer online services for each Sunday morning. In addition, we will temporarily move our 5pm Night Prayer services onto Zoom. We hope you are able to join us. 

We are also continuing to prepare for an online Nativity Display and auction. If you have Nativity Displays or items for the auction, please get in touch with the office!

Pray that we may all have enough love in our hearts and discipline in our actions to do what we must to take care of each other, and particularly the vulnerable in our community. 

May God bless and keep you all, fellow siblings in Christ. 

 

The Rev. Cameron Gutjahr