Lord, these days preparing for worship looks different.
I no longer prep the sanctuary, or listen to the choir rehearsing, or spend moments in my office opening myself to the Holy Spirit.
I don’t look around for the people in the halls and the pews, trying to greet them all by name.
These days, I wash my hands thoroughly and solemnly put on a mask, fully aware that my signature smile is hidden.
I place the video and sound equipment around me, making sure everyone can see and hear what is going on.
I put on gloves before I hand the order of worship to anyone, and make certain there are more than six feet between myself and the musicians.
And whenever I do all of this, I think of God. I think of my hope to serve. I think of my congregation and how much I miss them.
And I feel your blessing, as these movements of 6 plus weeks, have become a ritual of love and care and preparation.
Then I take a deep breath, like I always do, in every setting, send a quick prayer up to the Holy Spirit, and begin….
Thank you God for teaching me new ways to prepare for worship. Amen.
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Author: katyandtheword
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
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