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CSSeNews – Thursday 
October 1, 2020
Weekday Edition 

IN-PERSON WORSHIP
BEGINNING THIS SUNDAY!

Doors will be opening for worship this Sunday!
Photo taken by Gwendolyn R. Chambrun on September 9, 2018.
 



Christ & Saint Stephen’s Church
New York City 

 

KEEPING in touch, while staying SAFE


Five Ways to Worship at CSS!
 

In-Person  +  Live-Stream  +  eNews
Zoom Evening Prayer
Communion in the Garden



 

COVID-19 Pandemic:

 

IN-PERSON WORSHIP

beginning 

THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4

at 10:00 AM!

 


 

Introduction

The Rev. L. Kathleen Liles, Rector 

Click on the image to see and hear the Introduction.
A new 
window will open in Vimeo.
 

Mother Liles Intro to Weekday eNews September 29, 2020

 


 

In-Person Worship Plan

Our plan includes the following policies and procedures, which comply with New York State COVID-19 reopening guidelines and direction provided by the Bishop of New York on June 24 and July 2, 2020.

CSS will re-open its doors for limited in-person Sunday worship on October 4, 2020. Doors will open at 9:45 AM and the service of Holy Eucharist will begin at 10:00 AM. (Plans to resume childcare and church school are pending.) For the present time we will offer only one in-person service at 10:00 AM each Sunday. 

The entrance and exit into and out of the church nave will be separated. Signs will direct worshippers. 

All worshippers will be required to wear masks at all times on church property. Disposable masks will be provided if needed.  

Worshippers will be required to ‘check-in’ at the church entrance and to sign a document stating that they do not have symptoms and have not been exposed to anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Contact information will be collected from everyone attending worship. If necessary, this information may be provided to contact tracers who are required to track down the source of infections.  

Attendance will be limited to forty people. (NYS’s allowance is currently 25 percent of a church’s occupancy permit.) Once capacity is reached, latecomers will be given a card with information about how to join worship by live-stream and how to sign up to receive the CSSeNews Sunday Worship Edition via email. 

Service bulletins will be located in the pews at the seating areas. 

A trash bin will be located next to the exit and worshippers will be asked to toss their service bulletins in the bin as they exit the church. 

Publication of the CSSeNews Sunday Worship Edition will continue during this time of limited in-person worship. We will also live-stream our Sunday morning in-person worship for those who prefer to postpone in-person attendance until all restrictions are lifted or until they feel safe to do so. We are mindful that those who worship via live-stream or CSSeNews are bound together with those who worship inside the church in a fellowship of love and prayer, woven together by the mystery of Christ into his body – the Church. We celebrate these bonds of affection which remain unbroken during this time of physical separation.  

Following CDC regulations, the Church will be cleaned, sanitized, and disinfected before and after each worship service. 

A sign will be posted outside the church entrance advising anyone with fever or flulike symptoms not to enter the church. 

Sunday morning worship will include Holy Communion (consecrated Host only). Worship will not include congregational singing and congregational recitations will be limited to reduce transmission of respiratory droplets. (A cantor standing no less than 12' from the nearest worshipper may be added on festival days.) The service time will be shortened in order to reduce the amount of time the community is gathered. 

No physical contact with others (before church, during the Sign of the Peace, or after the service) will be permitted. Creative acknowledgement of one another – as brothers and sisters in Christ – without contact is encouraged. 

Worshippers may occupy the pews only in areas indicated by green tape. No other area of the pew may be occupied. Pews cordoned off with yellow tape may not be used. Seating for singles and couples will be designated. There will be at least three seating areas for groups of three. In all cases, no less than six feet must be maintained between individual worshippers or groups of worshippers.  

Hand sanitation dispensary stands will be located in the following areas: 
Two in back of the church.
One at the head aisle for use before receiving the consecrated Host. One in the undercroft outside the bathrooms.

Social gatherings before and/or after the worship service will not take place on church property, with the exception of socially distanced gatherings in the churchyard garden. 

Alms basins will not be passed from person-to-person, but a basin will be located in the rear of the nave at a stationary location. 

The single, handicapped accessible restroom in the undercroft will be available to worshippers and monitored by church personnel. Worshippers who desire to use the restroom facility will be advised when to proceed inside. A waiting line, with six-foot markings denoted on the floor, will be provided. The restroom will be cleaned between each use. (Other UC restrooms will be inaccessible in order that cleaning requirements may be maintained and monitored sufficiently.)

The Undercroft kitchen is not to be used, except when used for Brown Bag preparation with all social distancing protocols followed. 

All parishioners and volunteers are encouraged to be tested for COVID-19. Additionally, one should remain quarantined if any of the following apply:

+ A person has knowingly been in close or approximate contact in the past 14 days with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or has exhibited symptoms of COVID-19.

+ A person has tested positive for COVID-19 or has experienced symptoms associated with the virus – fever and other flu-like symptoms. 

+ Any parishioner who shows symptoms of COVID-19 or tests positive should alert the rector (212-787-2755, ext.3) in order that pastoral care may be offered, caution taken in the parish, and appropriate tracing and tracking be implemented. The name of the person will be withheld when parish membership is notified that someone has tested positive or is symptomatic. Only with permission will the infected person be listed on the Intercessory Prayer list. 

Parish leadership will continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic, information from the CDC and the Diocese of New York, and will make additional plans, if necessary. Additional plans and adjustments – or changes in the current plan – will be communicated through CSSeNews.  

If you have questions about the policies and protocols above, please contact the rector, Rev. Kathleen Liles at liles@csschurch.org or 212-787-2755, ext.3; or the Executive Assistant to the Rector, Kristin Hardwick, admin@csschurch.org or 212-787-2755, ext. 0.
 


Preparing the Church
for Worship


We have been busy preparing the church for indoor worship and look forward to welcoming those who feel they can safely enter the church. Every other pew is blocked off and seating areas are denoted by green tape. Every worshipper is required to check-in at a desk in the back of the church and then ushers will assist with directions. 

Things will be a little different for a while, but soon will become familiar. 

Mother Liles preparing church for Sunday worship.

Mother Liles preparing the Church for Sunday worship.


Kristin with her check list.

Kristin with her check list.


Daniel sets up live stream worship.

Daniel sets up to live-stream worship.
 

 

Those who are not ready for indoor worship
may join by live-stream. 

 

JOIN IN WORSHIP
VIA
LIVE-STREAM


Click on this link to tune in. The feed will be live beginning at 9:45 am and worship begins at 10:00!

The Chancel in Ordinary Time.

The Chancel in Ordinary Time.
 


Zoom Meetings

Now that Zoom requires a waiting room, we cannot admit those who join more than five minutes late. For Evening Prayer or The Emmaus Walk Bible study, when we use screen share, arrive by 5:05! 

If you haven’t used Zoom before,
we encourage you to watch this video in advance.
 


Evening ZOOM Prayer

Every Sunday & Wednesday at 5:00 pm


Jesus the Good Shepherd Window detail


Detail of the David Window in the Chapel at Christ & Saint Stephen’s.
Photo by Gwendolyn R. Chambrun.


To Join the Zoom Evening Prayer, click here.
 


the Emmaus walk

This Monday, October 5
 at 5:00 pm

When the disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus, Jesus himself – as the stranger – opened their eyes and hearts to scripture. Only then could they recognize it was Jesus. The Emmaus Walk is an informal exploration of the upcoming Sunday scripture by fellow pilgrims. No need to be a bible scholar, just someone who knows there is always more to share and to learn. 
 

Mondays 5:00 to 6:00 pm.

To Join the Zoom Virtual Emmaus Walk, click here.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us
on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
 

Burnand, Jean et Pierre

Eugène Burnand, Jean et Pierre, 1898.

 

Communion in the Garden


Wednesdays, Beginning October 7,
at 12:15 pm

 

Beginning Wednesday, October 7, at 12:15 pm, Holy Communion from the reserved sacrament will be offered in the churchyard garden. This is a very brief service to incorporate those who are uncomfortable attending indoor worship into our sacramental life.

The service will be offered rain or shine. Contact the rector if you have questions or concerns.


The crab apple tree in the garden.

The crab apple tree in the garden.

 

Faith & Fiction Book Discussion

 

ON BEAUTY

by Zadie Smith

Continuing October 8 & 15
Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 pm 

 

Zaide Smith On BeautyWith everything going on in the world today, is this a time for reading stories? I think so. Recent studies have shown that reading fiction increases our ability to grow in empathy for others – and there can be no understanding or forgiveness without that. A novel helps us not only to observe others’ actions but reveals their motivations, fears, struggles, regrets, dreams and loves – all the gathered time-worn stuff that compels a particular person to respond to life in a specific way. Characters in a novel can expand our view of the world and help us grow in our own self-knowledge. Examining our thoughts and actions in the reflected light of others – particularly those who seem most different from us – sometimes introduces us to aspects of our selves we had not yet encountered. 

This wonderful novel by Zadie Smith revolves around a collection of deftly drawn characters who struggle with each other and the unexpected circumstances life presents. Below is an introduction written by Father Andrew Mead, a friend who recommended the book. Since he is an especially able writer, I decided to let him introduce the book to you. 

The story involves Howard, a (militantly secular and politically correct) British professor whose stalled career involves a wrong-headed view of Rembrandt's art, and his splendid African-American wife Kiki, who live on a fictional campus, Wellington College (think Wellesley), near Cambridge and Boston MA. Their mixed-race children, a rival Trinidadian-British professor (militantly Christian, charismatic and conservative) and his wife and family, all feature strongly in a superb plot with well-drawn characters. Smith, daughter of a Jamaican mother and English father, a graduate of King's College, Cambridge, and a literature professor who has studied and taught at both Harvard and NYU, writes masterfully and knows her context well. She deals with race, class, academia, aesthetics, poetry and rap, hypocrisy, sex and infidelity, and always and everywhere: honesty.  

I will simply add that the book is a pleasure to read and there will be plenty to talk about. I hope you will consider joining in the discussions. The book is easily available from Amazon or your local bookseller. And, as always, if you would like assistance acquiring the book, do not hesitate to contact me by emailing me at liles@csschurch.org or calling 212-787-2755, ext. 3. I would be happy to make sure you get a copy – without you having to leave your apartment!
 
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

A WORD OF CAUTION

I announced this book after I had read about three-fourths of it. After that the story began to include — shall we say — Adult Content. If raunchy sex and language bother you, you may want to wait for the next book. Sorry. Going forward, I promise to read the book all the way to the end before choosing it. But, if you can get through that sort of scene and language, this novel is wonderful and by no means salacious. Just a bit of highly descriptive hanky panky that will not be for everyone.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

— LKL
 

Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:00 pm 
Continuing October 8 & 15

To join the discussions, click here.
 
 

A Tourist in Your Own Church!

(Title borrowed from NY Landmarks Conservancy:
see their link below to visit NY’s historic sites)

The Brass and Cloisonne Cross

Click on the image to see and hear the talk about the Cross.

Mother Liles Tourist in Your Own Church The Brass and Cloisonne Cross
 

The Brass and Cloisonne Cross

The Brass and Cloisonne Cross.


+ + +

NYC Landmarks Videos

I would like to acknowledge our debt to CSS parishioner, Peg Breen. She is President of the NYC Landmarks Conservancy. She has filmed a series titled Tourist in Your Own Town. If you follow the links below you may be in your apartment, but you can tour some of the most interesting places in New York from your arm chair!

NYLandmarks.org

NYLandmarks Videos

 

 

Stewardship and Social Distancing


THANKS TO EVERYONE
WHO IS STAYING UP TO DATE WITH PLEDGES.
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO YOU!
 
We hope the CSSeNews Sunday worship editions are a useful tool for your weekly worship. We design them with flexibility in mind so that you and your family may experience a worshipful Sunday morning – or afternoon. We have heard that some families gather to go through the service together. We love to hear that. But the one thing we cannot do is pass the alms basin at the Offertory.  Simple GiveIf you are keeping up with your pledge by Simple Give or Amex, the church doors being closed should not affect you much. But if you are ‘old school’ and used to dropping your pledge envelope into the collection plate, you might wonder what to do. Please consider signing up to make your contributions via Simple Give, which accepts Visa and Mastercard. Go to the church website’s giving link: https://www.csschurch.org/giving to enroll. It is simple. Or, if you prefer to give by Amex, contact our Bookkeeper, Lee Priore, at concert@csschurch.org
 
If you would like to drop your pledge payment in the mail, we are available to deposit your contribution once it is received, although mail delivery is spotty these days. 

If you have not made an annual pledge but wish to support the church during these challenging times, please consider doing so now. 

Your support of the church is essential during this period in order to ensure that we can continue to maintain our church and its ministries. Thank you and God bless you for remembering CSS.

 


 

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Photo of the new banner by the Rev. L. Kathleen Liles.

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