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A Letter from Bishop Benfield
On Monday I sent a guideline for reopening congregations to our churches, stating that for about half of our congregations, it will be possible to begin some form of in-person worship on Sunday, May 31. Whether or not your congregation will choose to have outdoor, indoor, or online worship will depend in part on the active Covid-19 cases in your county. Many of our rural congregations are in areas where there has been little infection, while urban areas have been hit more severely. We will keep tracking cases in each county every week to help with ongoing congregational decisions. A surge in infections might require a return to online worship in some places. Under no circumstances should your congregation begin in-person worship unless your leadership feels comfortable and able to do so, and congregations should find ways to accommodate individuals who remain at home because they are not ready to join a large number of other people in a worship service. This is a new adventure for the church. For example, for the time being even our larger congregations with resident priests will get more experience with Morning Prayer than has been the case in the past. We need to figure out how to stay safe in the very act of gathering before we add the complexity of distributing Holy Communion. We can find creative ways to continue to be active, worshiping, outwardly-focused congregations in the coming weeks and months. The church has endured and grown and changed through times of pestilence and plague throughout its history. We will do so again. I thank each of you for your continued support of the church—and especially for one another and the most vulnerable among us—in this challenging time. We can step forward with confidence in our mission and continue to serve the world around us. A Note from Bishop Benfield
We face challenges as a church in this age of pandemic, but we are confident that the church is up to the challenge. Over the next few months we in Arkansas will find ways to bring our community back together in person, always mindful that we will look out for the health of everyone around us. In anticipation of opening our doors once again, we will spend the next month preparing. During the month of May, we will continue to worship online rather than in person. Please remember that how and when to reopen will depend in large part on public health guidelines in effect at the time and the success, or lack of it, in overcoming the pandemic. Estimates of infection, illness, and death change from week to week, making it impossible to give precise dates in early May 2020 on when churches can reopen. But we will do so as soon as we feel confident that reopening is the right thing to do for our spiritual and physical health. Below is a link to a four-page pamphlet outlining what we need to do in May, complete with a list of questions each congregation needs to be asking now, and what we hope to be able to do in June. A Letter from Bishop Benfield
When this pandemic began and we closed our churches, many of us were looking forward to the Sunday when we would all return to church and it would feel like Easter at last. That sense of anticipation is probably more palpable now that Arkansas's governor will allow certain businesses to start operations again on May 4. What we now understand is that the reopening of our churches will take place in a much more measured, careful way than as a grand reopening event. My staff and I working on the best strategy to do so, and thus are working with the help of other church leaders across the Episcopal Church. We will look not only at the governor's directives, but also at guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and other public health entities. The last thing we want to do is take unnecessary health risks. In the coming days I will work with our clergy and lay leaders on a set of focused steps for reopening churches. We will, for example, find social distancing as an ongoing reality for some time. It may be that our smaller, more rural congregations will be operating more normally sooner than our larger, urban congregations. It is likely that such events as small Bible study groups will be meeting in church buildings before Sunday worship recommences. And in the first phase of church re-openings, Morning Prayer is likely to be the Sunday morning liturgy rather than participation in the Eucharist. What I miss most right now is making visits to congregations, confirming people, and sharing the Eucharist with them. Naturally, I have set aside my schedule as I wait to see when it will again be safe to visit congregations and what those visits will look like. In the meantime, while I cannot visit, I am presiding each Sunday at Trinity Cathedral's liturgy. We have been through a challenging spring, but we have learned how to care of one another in new ways, and that is something that we will build on in the future. We are finding resurrection stories in our own lives, and in that sense every day is Easter Day; every week is still part and parcel of Easter season. I wish you continued joy in this season as we look into the future and the opportunities it will bring us. |
SERVICES
In-person services temporarily suspended due to COVID-19. SUNDAY 10 a.m. – Holy Eucharist 11:15 a.m. – Sunday School |
