REMEMBER: WE HAVE RETURNED TO ONE WORSHIP SERVICE AT 9 AM.
Dear Friends,
This past Sunday was memorable for four reasons. First, we celebrated the Holy Trinity, one of our six major church festival days and the only one dedicated to a doctrinal statement and not an event in the life of Jesus. Second, it was Memorial Day, a time to reflect on the sacrifices of those who served our nation in uniform. Third, this Sunday was the first time that we met as a congregation in our sanctuary for worship at the same time. What a joy to be together to sing and pray as one congregation.
The fourth reason was that Sharon Odden, one of our newest members, preached a wonderful sermon on God’s immense love for us. Sharon was trained as lay leader in the Montana Synod in a program we call in the Grand Canyon Synod Diaconal Ministry. Lay members work through a two-year educational program in congregational ministry classes of their choosing. Their goal is to be stronger lay leaders within their congregation and synod. One of the areas Sharon chose to learn was preaching. We thank Sharon for her service on this special day.
The annual synod assembly will be held on June 11 and 12, via Zoom. Jim and Ellie Thompson, our voting members, and myself, will meet at the church and attend the assembly in the pastor’s office. The bishop and other leaders will be in Las Vegas…or perhaps somewhere else. This assembly will certainly be different from any other assembly that I have attended. If you remember last year’s assembly was canceled due to Covid-19 issues.
Over the past year, I have become accustomed to attending meetings via Zoom. I’m looking forward to a new synod assembly experience this year and next year I understand it will be held at Love of Christ, here in Mesa. Please keep our bishop and everyone else who will be leading this assembly in your prayers.
That’s all I have today. I hope to share with you in my next newsletter an important update on our call process. Until then, keep our call committee and congregation council in your prayers.
Peace,
Pastor John
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Additional announcements:
The council, on May 16, after much discussion, decided to make the following changes.
1) From Memorial Day through Labor Day, Bethlehem will return to one service at 9 am. Our first Sunday with one service will be May 30.
2) The wearing of a mask during worship for those who are vaccinated will no longer be mandated, but is still recommended.
3) The wearing of a mask is required for those who are not vaccinated for their safety.
4) No one will be asked if they are vaccinated.
5) If you are not feeling well, running a fever, coughing, etc., we ask that you not worship on that day but instead worship with us on our Vimeo recorded service.
6) We will continue to enter through the Fellowship Hall. There will be no temperature checks. We do ask everyone to sign in and use sanitizer on their hands. This record is necessary if there is a need to do contact tracing.
7) There will no longer be a need to register prior to the service.
8) The sanctuary will be set up for 70 chairs. This should be sufficient seating for all Sundays during the summer period.
9) Holy Communion will continue as currently practiced.
After Labor Day, the council will review all Covid-19 protocols.