From the Rector:
 

Greetings friends and members of Christ Church Episcopal,

I was looking for some words of wisdom to start this article with, when Janelle’s youth group update appeared in my inbox. She has some gems from our younger members, see below. Since I can’t top theirs I’ll just pass them along, and wish everyone the very best, and urge everyone to be safe. We can’t meet in person at the moment, but do know that I have you all in heart and prayer every day.

As it happens, shutting down church services came at exactly the worst time, Holy Week and Easter. (Not that there would ever be a good time!) But we will do our best to worship together in these essential days, using the internet. Here is the plan at this point—it may evolve as we learn more, so stay alert for last-minute updates.

• First an idea that comes recommended by our Bishop Marty Stebbins: What if everyone on Sunday April 5 in the morning, puts a branch on the door of their house or on the window, to celebrate Palm Sunday? It could be any green branch you can get. This would help, despite the social distancing, to be connected as we enter into the Holiest of Weeks. We may be physically isolated, but not separated. We are united as the body of Christ

• Then Palm Sunday (April 5) we will post a video on Youtube, showing a pre-recorded worship service from the Christ Church sanctuary. I will send out the link beforehand on e-mail, and it will also be on the website and Facebook. When we sing, you are invited to sing along at home! The two hymns will be “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” and “O Sacred Head Sore Wounded,” both in the blue hymnal.

• Also for Palm Sunday: I will post an invitation to “virtual coffee hour” at 11:00 AM. This will be on the GoToMeeting platform. It is our time to mingle with friends and say hello more personally.

• I will lead services for Maundy Thursday (5:30 PM) and Good Friday (Noon) from home. Please join me by signing in with the GoToMeeting links to be sent out beforehand.

• Plans for Easter Day are still evolving—stay tuned. But for sure we will have another virtual coffee hour, to say hello and show off our Easter finery and dyed eggs etc.

Blessings,
Donnel+

April Birthdays
 

April 5,   Mark Norley, Ed Eberly

April 6,  Sierra Crandell

April 9,   Garrison Reese, Megan Hodges

April 14,   Marilyn Taylor, Jeni Scarff

April 22,   Gwen Biggar

April 27,   J T Taylor

April 24,   Sage Litchfield



April Anniversaries


April 14,   Bob & Monica Desjean

April 28,    Janelle & Hillary Willett
 

   Youth Group Notes

CCE YOUTH GROUP NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2020

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil 1:3-6)

As I write this Sadie is playing with playdough and I am working from my home computer. It’s our new normal. These times are new for all of us, aren’t they? The other night we were watching Frozen 2 together. There’s a song about how some things never change. I don’t know about you, but for us it feels as if EVERYTHING has changed. Some days are easier than others. Some days it’s nice to all be at home cuddled together taking it easy, and other days the worries and anxieties and “what if’s” and restlessness get the best of me. However, one thing does in fact NEVER CHANGE. No matter what wars or pandemics or economic turmoil we face- GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME! His love never fails. He is with us. He is in us.

Never has that been more evident to me than this last Sunday when we attempted our first online youth group. Only 3 of our kiddos were able to sign in, but wow did that hour feel like the sunlight after a rainstorm! Full of smiles and hope-their positive attitudes were contagious. Here they are missing their friends, navigating online school, hearing very scary news stories every day, and yet they laughed and joked and shared stories. May we all share their enthusiasm in the silly and mundane. Here is some great advice from our youth as well as some other youth around the state to help you get through this quarantine craziness!

“As long as there are chicken nuggets, we will be okay.”

“Put on a silly hat and start a silly hat chat.” (An idea for Easter perhaps?)

“I guess it just seems silly to whine about it. No one can change it.”

“Learn something new. I’m learning to whittle.”

“Put on some music and just dance.”

So there you have it. Wisdom from the youth. God bless you all!

Janelle Fuller

Activities & Special Events

All ACTIVITIES are CANCELLED due to the
Covid-19 Shelter-in-Place Directive
from Montana Governor Steve Bullock.
 

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, you can take simple steps to protect yourself and your family:

• Stay home if you’re sick.

• Avoid contact with sick people when possible.

• Cover your cough and sneezes with the crook of your elbow or a tissue.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth and wash your hands frequently.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe

Online Donations

An Offering of Reflection by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

On Our Theology of Worship: Questions in the Time of COVID-19

 
Across The Episcopal Church the current Pandemic has given rise to many questions about challenges to our liturgical life. Bishops are being asked, “May we do this or that? Will you permit this or that way of celebrating the Eucharist or delivering Holy Communion to the members of our congregations?” Some years ago in an essay titled “Is There a Christian Sexual Ethic?” Rowan Williams observed that in the then current debates about marriage rites for same sex couples, this “permissible/not permissible” way of conducting the conversation was a dead end. The real (and much more productive) question for a sacramental people, he said, was not simply whether a given practice was “right or wrong,” but rather “How much are we prepared for this or that liturgical action to mean?” How much are we prepared for it to signify? Sacraments effect by signifying.
 
Sacraments are actions that give new meaning to things. The current questions about the way we worship in a time of radical physical distancing invites the question of what we are prepared for a given sacramental encounter to mean. Sacraments are communal actions that depend on “stuff”: bread and wine, water and oil. They depend on gathering and giving thanks, on proclaiming and receiving the stories of salvation, on bathing in water, on eating and drinking together. These are physical and social realities that are not duplicatable in the virtual world. Gazing at a celebration of the Eucharist is one thing; participating in a physical gathering and sharing the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist is another. And, God, of course, can be present in both experiences.
 
And that is surely the most important thing to remember. From the time of Thomas Cranmer, mainstream Anglicanism has insisted that the Holy Eucharist is to be celebrated in community, with no fewer than two people. In contrast to some medieval practices, the Prayer Book tradition was deeply concerned with reestablishing the essential connection between the celebration of the Eucharist and the reception of Holy Communion. Over time, of course, many factors contributed to a general decline in the celebration of the Eucharist well into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Morning Prayer became the common service of worship on the Lord’s Day. And while it is good and right that the situation has changed dramatically, that the Holy Eucharist has again become the principal act of worship on Sunday across our church, few would suggest that the experience of Morning Prayer somehow limited God’s presence and love to generations of Anglican Christians. There are members of our church today who do not enjoy a regular sustained celebration of the Eucharist for a variety of reasons other than this Pandemic — they are no less members of Christ’s Body because of it.
 
Practices such as “drive by communion” present public health concerns and further distort the essential link between a communal celebration and the culmination of that celebration in the reception of the Eucharistic Bread and Wine. This is not to say that the presence of the Dying and Rising Christ cannot be received by any of these means. It is to say that from a human perspective, the full meaning of the Eucharist is not obviously signified by them. Our theology is generous in its assurance of Christ’s presence in all our times of need. In a rubric in the service for Ministration to the Sick (p. 457), The Book of Common Prayer clearly expresses the conviction that even if a person is prevented from physically receiving the Sacrament for reasons of extreme illness or disability, the desire for Christ’s presence alone is enough for all the benefits of the Sacrament to be received.
 
Richard Hooker described the corporate prayer of Christians as having a spiritual significance far greater than the sum of the individual prayers of the individual members of the body. Through corporate prayer, he said, Christians participate in communion with Christ himself, “joined … to that visible, mystical body which is his Church.” Hooker did not have in mind just the Eucharist, which might have taken place only quarterly or, at best, monthly in his day. He had very much in mind the assembly of faithful Christians gathered for the Daily Office.
 
While not exclusively the case, online worship may be better suited to ways of praying represented by the forms of the Daily Office than by the physical and material dimensions required by the Eucharist. And under our present circumstances, in making greater use of the Office there may be an opportunity to recover aspects of our tradition that point to the sacramentality of the scriptures, the efficacy of prayer itself, the holiness of the household as the “domestic church,” and the reassurance that the baptized are already and forever marked as Christ’s own. We are living limbs and members of the Body of Christ, wherever and however we gather. The questions being posed to Bishops around these matters are invitations to a deeper engagement with what we mean by the word “sacrament” and how much we are prepared for the Church itself — with or without our accustomed celebrations of the Eucharist — to signify about the presence of God with us.

VESTRY MINUTES

Christ Church Episcopal    March 26th

 
(This meeting was done via phone conference call due to the Covid 19 Virus Pandemic)
 
Present:  Father O’Flynn, Peggy Stout, Julie Crandell, Hillary Willett, Jay Flynn, Larry Taylor, Kurt Larson, Carol, Sam D, Holy Ward, Pat Sylvia, Janelle Willett
Absent:  Don Amundson
 
Opening Prayer
 
Approval of February vestry minutes. The vestry had the chance to read over them last week.  Kurt moved to approve the February vestry minutes.  Peggy seconded the motion.  Minutes accepted unanimously.
 
Treasurers Report:  Our funds look approximately normal for right now.  Father O’Flynn reports that we are good for our March and April bills for sure.  Sam wondered if it was okay to go the church to get payroll and other things done.  Father O’Flynn said that the church would be empty.
 
Father O’Flynn shared that John Bertram has made it possible to tithe and make donations online. As of right now there’s not a way to differentiate between funds, but that is something that can be added. 
 
Masonry Discussion: We have two bids in for the masonry work.  One from Anderson Masonry and one from American Stone on Masonry.  American Stone recommends that more extensive work is necessary right now, and their bid comes in at 15K.  Anderson recommends keeping an eye on some of the cracks and doing the minimum until the problem gets worse.  Their bid is $1500, with more possible, after we investigate a crack going down into the ground. 
 
The vestry discussed the pros and cons of each bid.  Some people expressed an interest in going with the larger bid and getting all of the work done now while others shared the merit of fixing the minimum and keeping an eye on the cracks.  There was a concern with several of the buttresses.  Julie P and Peggy S were both available to answer some questions regarding the bids as they were both there when the prospective companies did walk throughs.  After much discussion Peggy Stout moved to accept the lower costing Anderson Masonry bid.  Julie seconded the motion.  Motion passed.  (Kurt Larson and Pat Sylvia voted against; Jay Flynn abstained) 
 
Elevator Discussion: We also have two bids for the elevator project.  One is from Big Sky and comes in around 23 K.  One is from A Plus out of Utah and their bid is at 34 K.  Both of these bids include replacing our elevator with a new model that can carry more weight.  Father O’Flynn thinks that A Plus has given a higher bid because they are more aware of the codes that need to be met and have included the work needed to meet said codes in their bid.  The phone line was opened up for discussion.  Some vestry members wanted the lower, local bid.  Some vestry members wanted to go with the higher bid.  Peggy Stout moved to accept the higher bid from A Plus Masonry out of Utah. Pat Sylvia seconded the motion.  The motion passed.  (Kurt Larson voted against)
 
Rector Report:  Bishop Stebbins has ordered all Episcopal churches in MT to remain closed until May.  This may change as this pandemic is always changing and is very fluid. 
 
He wanted to thank some people for their work during these unprecedented and uncertain times: 
His wife Janet for her GoToMeeting Account. Dave Reese for keeping up our Facebook page. Greg Scarff for his upkeep up the website.  (Greg will step down from webmaster in May after 15 years and we will need to find a replacement.) Eric Christiansen has been helping with some email.  Joh Bertram has set up online donations.  Julie Crandell has written a letter for parishioners that will go out this week.  Godly play is pre-recording stories to show at our online services.  Barb Meyers and Deb have taken over the signage boards.  A lovely message is there now!  John Faure and Marilyn Eberly have been making phone calls to check in on church members.  Everyone’s efforts (those mentioned and those not) are really appreciated. 
 
Warming Center update: They are closed for overnight sleeping arrangements due to the Covid19 virus but are still handing out food and sleeping bags nightly.  This has met a huge need and they asked permission to keep doing so even after March.  As all church events are canceled until further notice, there is no problem in them continuing to do this, so Fr O’Flynn gave permission. 
 
Other Ministry Areas:  Red Door Pantry is closed for now.  Feeding the Flathead is moved to Central Christian Church with to-go meals only.  It feels odd to have nothing happening at the church or in our buildings.  Father O’Flynn reminded everyone that he does have a discretionary fund which is still solvent as of right now.  He anticipates many more parishioners needing help as these difficult times extend.  People can donate to this online and can keep in mind that this is available. 
 
The vestry retreat is canceled until further notice. 
 
Financing the Elevator & Masonry Projects. Father O’Flynn suggests that we apply for 10 K from the Faber Fund from the Diocese, use approximately 13 K from our own Memorial Fund and then get a loan to cover the other 17 K (more or less) with a no interest Faber Fund loan. We rely on Church members to generously donate to pay this off.  Peggy Stout moved to accept this proposal.  Hillary seconded the motion.  Motion passed. 
 
Staff Salaries:  Father O’Flynn and the wardens shared their opinions that as of now we should continue to pay the staff despite the church being closed.  Vestry agreed.  Janelle is grateful 😉
 
Youth Group:  Janelle’s done an email check-in and some phone calls.  She hopes to begin meeting online.  All families are well but struggling with this new normal, as we all are. 
 
Safeguarding:  Father O’Flynn checked to make sure all vestry members have read the policies.  He will send the Diocesan office notification that all have. 
 
There will be no reflection assignment given for the April vestry meeting as it will be online again. 
 
Palm Sunday and Holy Week services will be online via GoToMeeting.  There will be no Easter Vigil this year.  Fr O’Flynn is exploring ways to pre-record a service from the sanctuary for Easter Day. Craig and Meghan continue to try and figure out how to make sound quality okay for our online services. 
 
The meeting was concluded with everyone giving a brief update on how they are all doing, which everyone really appreciated.  We will continue to hold each other up in prayer and we will get through this together.  Closing prayer.