I remember the amazement and great joy I experienced during our first church Zoom service last March. I’d been sick for weeks, missing worship and missing the community even more. Mercifully, I was back at St. John’s during the last week of February for Ash Wednesday and Lent I. Unmercifully, with the coronavirus among us, it was necessary to shelter in place at the beginning of March. Others in our community soon followed suit.
 
At the end of March at our first Zoom service, I felt like God had revealed the motherlode of grace when I saw the faces of our beloved community. Honestly, it seemed miraculous to me. The grace, trust, and openness I see in our Sunday morning service is truly humbling. I wanted a poster of your faces to hang on my wall, or maybe a laminated placemat like Fly had of her kindergarten class. I didn’t know about screenshots last March so neither of those things materialized.
 
Last night I happened upon the Contemplative Outreach website. On the homepage they have a link – Tips for Zoom-enabled Centering Prayer. Hoping I would learn something, I took the bait. Zoom prayer groups are described as:
 
**  Astonishing  **   Intimate  **   Powerful Connections  **
 
The tips were largely instructions how to open a Zoom account, which at this time is faily useless. I noticed this had been written on March 21, 2020 when I too was astonished by our Zoom-enabled worship. Ten months later, I and several of our community are no longer enchanted by Zoom and need more connection.
 
The Book of Common Prayer contains exquisite ritual that most of us ordinarily find deeply moving. Our rituals however, were intended for corporal worship. I’ve come to believe Zoom church will never be an adequate substitute for physical worship. Of course, our prayers and hymns are still poetic and powerful. But they are even more poetic and powerful when the experience is shared in one place, together – when my breath creates song, my song is enriched when it mingles with the voices around me.
 
The truth is, I, with Beth and Michael M., have spent hours and hours trying to make our virtual liturgy meaningful by striving for a perfect form, and seeking the perfect image. I naively thought art and beauty could fill the emptiness and bridge the distance between us. It is true that striking presentations may indeed make PowerPoint more palatable, but beauty cannot replace in person fellowship.  I’ve also learned that the Holy Spirit is more discernable when the body of Christ is united in person, communal worship.
 
Over the past ten months, we’ve wanted nothing more than to sustain an online worship experience that met the spiritual needs of our community. With the prolonged pandemic, and record high levels of zoom fatigue and isolation, I’m afraid we’re reaching the point where  we need more connection in addition to the Zoom services we’ve had up to this point. I think this is especially true for the members of our congregation who are fed by our community, and not only our liturgy.
 
In light of this, I’d like to extend an invitation to all of you to be in touch if you’d like to talk about virtual spiritual connections, or lack thereof.
 
I’m looking forward to and  grateful that Martha will be with us soon to lead us on our journey toward Lent. In the meantime, it seems right to pay homage to technology.
 
The Blessing of Faces: A Zoom Prayer

So many beautiful faces,
So many radiant souls,
Shining forth
Into our hearts.
 
Look at those eyes.
The smiles.
The hopes. The fears.
The yearning. The questioning.
The compassion.
The love.
 
Take it in.
Take it all in.
The tenderness.
The humanity.
The blessing of faces
Arrayed before you.
The blessing of faces,
Given,
And received.
 
~ Alden Solovy

Deacon Jac
deacon@saintjohnsf.org

______
Please share this email - or any part of it - with a friend, family, or neighbor with a gentle invitation to come along to a service (they can lurk and won't get called upon!). With their permission, you can add them to the distribution list; just send me their name and email address.
______
Under the current restrictions we cannot perform baptisms, large funerals, or last rites in person. Larger gatherings have to be postponed until after the shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted and sick "visits" and last rites are performed on-line or by telephone.  

We are available if you are ill, need pastoral care, or any kind of practical help such as food or rides, please contact the parish administrator and someone from the pastoral care team will be in touch.

We are fortunate enough to have funds available for our parishioners in need.  This money is for use in providing direct services to people. If you need help with food, rent, or medical expenses, please do not be shy! Let us know. Your request and the assistance you receive will be confidential.