The announcement on the website's homepage was roughly pulled from a letter I wrote to the congregation on March 17, the day I received a Pastoral Letter from our bishop. In it, I mention a devotional pamphlet for Spiritual Communion. You can get in touch with the office if you'd like a copy, but hopefully I'll put a version of it up on the website before long. Here is the full letter:
March 17, 2020
The Feast of St. Patrick
St. Mary’s Church and friends,
I received word this morning from our bishop, the Right Reverend Morris K.
Thompson, Jr., informing us of his decision to halt all public worship in the diocese until further notice. His (most recent) Pastoral Letter to the diocese is included with this letter. If something changes we will let you know, but for the time being there will not be any public worship services or any other events (Bible Study, meetings, etc.) at St. Mary’s Church here in Franklin.
I do want to let you know that, even though we will not be having any public assemblies, the Church never stops her prayers or her worship. So I will be praying the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer and also making the Eucharist on major feasts at the regularly scheduled times, including at 10:30am on Sunday mornings (all Sundays, even during Lent, are major feasts). These are not public services, and you will not able to join me in person. But I strongly encourage you to pray and to worship at home at those times, knowing that you are in fact worshiping in union with the Church through the Holy Spirit, who embraces each of us and makes us one in Christ.
Also included with this letter is a pamphlet titled “Spiritual Communion.” It’s a short devotional based on an old teaching of the Church that when a Christian eagerly desires the Eucharist but for reasons beyond her control is not able to receive the Eucharist, the Lord is pleased to share the grace of Communion with himself through the gift of his Spirit.
Some congregations have discerned they ought to try to quench people’s desire for the Church’s communion. But I wonder if this might be a time when the Lord kindles your desires. Perhaps this pamphlet will be especially helpful to you on Sunday mornings during this time, but you can also hold onto it for other times when you truly wish you could be at Church but it’s completely impossible for you to attend. If you’d like more copies, just give the church’s office a call.
I also join the bishop in encouraging you to pull out your Book of Common Prayer, if you have a copy of it (you can also find it on the internet at www.bcponline.org). You might enjoy simply thumbing through it and exploring—it’s filled with gems. 1 If you’d like a short instruction guide for praying Morning and Evening Prayer, you can call the office to request it.
This congregation is pretty good about checking in on each other, so I encourage you to continue doing that. If you yourself are having a hard time in any way, please reach out to the Church to let us know—if you’re sick, short on supplies, lonely, whatever it might be.
Finally, if you normally give financially to the Church during the offertory at our regular services, please mail your contributions during this time to the Church’s post-office box (P.O. Box 95, Franklin, LA 70538).
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest upon you, fill your heart, hold you, protect you, and guide you throughout this time, and I bless you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Yours in the Lord,
The Rev. Fr. Stephen Crawford
Comments