Friends, I greet you in the name of ONE in whom we live and move and have our being, the MYSTERY which is the LOVE that IS DIVINITY.  This is not a message which I hoped to deliver, but the rapidly changing dynamics of this ongoing pandemic make it necessary. Once again, we are all being asked to do all that we can to keep one another safe. With this in mind, our Church Council met last night over Zoom to discuss what measures we need to take in response to the many calls from experts who are urging all of us to limit the number of contacts with people outside our household during the coming weeks. Council decided that our Sunday morning in-person gatherings, even with all the protocols in place, still pose some risk of contributing to the spread of Omicron. This sad reality, coupled with the opportunity for us to lead by example, encouraged the Council to decide to suspend our in-person, indoor gatherings.

That’s the sad news. The good news is that our incredible Worship Team has been busy creating ONLINE Worship Videos which we will continue to upload to our website each Sunday by 8am and this week we began recording our Christmas Eve ONLINE Worship Video which will be uploaded at 5pm on Christmas Eve.

Wait there is even more good news:  all the information we have, indicates that outdoor gatherings continue to be a safe option. So, our planned Christmas Eve, Fireside Lessons and Carols celebration will go ahead! We will gather at 7pm in our parking-lot to hear the Good News that LOVE is born again, and again, and again. We will be posting the Lessons and Carols on our website so that you can DOWNLOAD the service on your devices and lend your voices to our celebration. I know that I’m particularly looking forward to all of us lighting our candles and singing Silent Night as together we affirm the truth that there is no darkness which will ever be able to overcome the LIGHT which is the LOVE born in us, over and over again.

Yes, we are cancelling in-person gatherings inside our building, but we will continue to celebrate ONLINE Sundays and Christmas Eve and we will also gather OUTSIDE on Christmas Eve. We hope that our abundance of caution will help each of you to reduce your contacts, so that you can safely gather with your loved ones over the holidays. Please do your part to stay safe and keep your neighbours safe. Please join us ONLINE as we celebrate LOVE’s birth among us. Please, if you can join us OUTSIDE on Christmas Eve, come let us adore LOVE together. Please, if you are struggling in anyway over the coming weeks, reach out to us, either by phone or by email. We do want to hear from you! Please continue to check our website holycrosslutheran.ca where you will find all the details about all the services we will be offering. Please know, that I am holding you all in my heart and thereby my prayers, trusting that the ONE who is LOVE lives and breathes in, with, through, and beyond us, and that together we can be LOVE for one another. 

Remember, the blessing of our LOVER, BELOVED, and LOVE Itself, is with you all, now and always!

Merry Christmas everyone, see you ONLINE and OUTSIDE!

Shalom, dear ones. Shalom.

Pastor Dawn