Good morning church,
Here she is, Isabelle M., just a few months ago during her exchange program on the other side of the globe, happy as can be. Isabelle is one of our current college students. When the corona virus is not wreaking havoc, she is attending Ithica College in Upstate New York. Coming to St. Peter’s in 2007, I remember Isabelle and her older brother Stuart as Sunday School students, young children growing up at church. I instructed Isabelle in First Holy Communion and in Confirmation Classes. She sang in our Girl’s Ensemble. And now, well, she has become a young woman. Like so many others, she is working online college courses at home these days. But in Isabelle’s case, the trip home from college was a little bit farther. She spent the winter semester in Christchurch, New Zealand, and her mom (Amy) told me repeatedly that she had “the time of her life.” Her parents had intentions to visit her in March and had to cancel their trip when you-know-what happened. Isabelle’s journey home was wrought with nervousness on the part of her parents and her grandmother Ginny B., who, I am sure, said many prayers during that time. Isabelle came home safely, probably on an almost empty plane, I am guessing. She feels very lucky that she was able to do this just before international travel shut down almost completely. She writes:
“I am very fortunate to have spent part of this semester abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand at the University of Canterbury. Due to the unforeseen circumstances, I arrived back home on March 29. Since then, I have been completing my classes asynchronously online. Although this isn’t the most ideal format, I am grateful to be continuing my studies and connecting with friends I met while abroad!
The two months I spent exploring the beautiful country of New Zealand were unforgettable. I was able to grow tremendously as a person by stepping outside of my comfort zone. Meeting people from all over the world, trying a variety of unique foods, enjoying the warm weather, and experiencing new teaching styles are a few of the many highlights from my trip. Some of my favorite memories include hiking in Sumner and Tekapo and kayaking in Kaikoura.”
Isabelle is also the one who said to her mom upon returning, “What, we can’t even go to church now???” Well, as I mentioned to you repeatedly, we are working on a re-opening concept and it will probably begin after Memorial Day weekend and be much different than what we are all used to. Yesterday I spoke to Jane S., who is coordinating activities for our neighbor parish, St. Rose of Lima and is a wonderful neighbor of Diane Z. Jane shared with me experiences of large Catholic parishes in other parts of the country who have some re-opening experience now. Some of those parishes have eight or nine masses on a Sunday in order to abide by social distancing rules and accommodate all the people. We will not have that many services of course, but it will require some flexibility and resilience on the part of all of us, of all the people of our church. I am confident that we will manage these times and more than that…
This morning I prayed over a verse from Isaiah 42: 16: “I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.” It occurred to me that this scripture passage doesn’t tell us to get the heck out of the darkness and into the light as fast as we can, but it says that God’s light will meet us IN the darkness. And it doesn’t tell us to run from the rough places in life, but it tells us that God turns those rough places into level ground. I think we are just beginning to learn those spiritual lessons at this time; and in many ways these unusual conditions are more conducive to experiencing God than the “normal” times that we wish back. I am going to lead a virtual Basic Session on this very topic; we had it on our program for March and it fell victim to the closings. The session is called “Learning to Walk in the Dark,” and is based on a book by Barbara Brown Taylor. Brown-Taylor’s suggestions are more relevant now than ever before. We will have this virtual session on Friday night, June 5 at 7:00 p.m. Also, soon I will include again a small calendar of upcoming events in my emails, so that we all have some things to look forward to…
I received this note from Phyllis Byrne, our own North Wales local historian, who enjoyed hearing the bell of St. Peter’s in the attachment video yesterday. Our church bell is exactly 137 years old and still sounds great, doesn’t she? Phyllis writes:
“I am sorry I missed the newscast of the bell ringing. I hope some of the bell listeners were aware of the great history of St. Peter’s bell, facts you may recall from my book. You might remember that the bell tolling on Sunday was cast in 1883 at North Wales’ own Durrin Bell Foundry. It was the town’s timepiece, ringing every morning from the cupola of Prof. Brunner’s 1872 North Wales Academy, formerly on Pennsylvania Ave. behind today’s library. When that institution closed, the Brunner family donated the venerable bell for use in St. Peter’s newly remodeled steeple in 1903. There it has remained. I remember watching the bell’s rope being pulled at church services… Again, many thanks for all your inspiring messages and pictures. They surely are helping many to cope with the current crisis.”
Attached is also the material for tomorrow’s noon Bible study about Galatians 1. Contact the church for Zoom invitation.
A few updates:
- I received well over 30 Mother’s Day pictures now and Lisa is happily feeding them into a fancy software program down in Texas. It will be very nice. Keep them coming!
- We will collect food for Manna on Main Street this Friday between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. as we have done over the last few weeks. Starting next week, we will switch the date to Wednesdays. That is because Manna will be closed every other Friday for cleaning and they don’t have as much weekend staff.
- Our council will convene tonight at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom.
- We have seven participants for Saturday’s virtual new member orientation
Please pray for all those who are grieving and mourning during these difficult times, including “Little Joe” H., who lost his mom at the age of 87. He was her only child. Joe is a resident of the Lamb Foundation, and he misses the church community terribly. I talked to him the other day and the death of his mom was confirmed by the Director of the Lamb Foundation. Choir members have reached out to him and have shown him kindness. Thank you all!
Be blessed and be well!
Pastor Andreas Wagner