FROM OUR LEADERSHIP
Responding to challenges with courage, creativity and faith
M
y journal entry from January 1, 2020 read, “Thank you, God, for a new year – and all of the opportunities it offers. Opportunities about which I know nothing. Challenges that lie before me. I’m glad I don’t know the challenges or the risks, but I know there will be many. How I respond to them is the act of faith….” I could not possibly have imagined how prophetic those words would become as the world was plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been challenges and risks in abundance; there have also been opportunities beyond numbering. How we, as the church, have responded has become the act of faith and the witness of God’s guidance and grace. How did the church respond? During the week of March 9, as news of COVID spread, I spoke with the province’s IT Manager and said, “Whatever else you have been working on, stop now and begin doing whatever it takes to prepare our staff to work from home.” That Friday, March 13, the staff at 1021 Center St. did a “practice” work-from-home so that we would be ready in case we had to close the office. We have not yet returned 100% to the building as of October 1. That same week, Justin Rabbach and Dan Miller, founders of Moravian Church Without Walls, asked if I would preach on March 15, via Zoom, as the world started shutting down and staying at home. That first worship service was a bit rough around the edges; its very imperfection was a gift to pastors and leaders who were emboldened to take a risk and give Zoom worship a try.
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Since that week, I have watched every corner of the church respond to challenges with courage, creativity and faith. The provincial staff, using their personal computers, learned how to work from home and continue to serve the wider church. The Interprovincial Board of Communication began making resources available online, as they researched every possible liturgy and hymn that was not copyright protected. The Board of World Mission made $200 grants available to any congregation who applied; many used the funds to purchase Zoom accounts or buy extra paper and stamps to communicate more thoroughly with parishioners. The Moravian Music Foundation curated
The Moravian
