ALL ARE WELCOME AT
St. Andrew's Episcopal
The Episcopal Church in Mountain Home, Arkansas
Earlier this week we sent out an email outlining the change to our worship this Sunday.
Over the ensuing days I have been trying to perfect the technology we have at our disposal. As with anything tech related, everytime you try a new solution to a problem, six new problems show themselves. We are still on schedule to livestream the service at 9am on Sunday morning. If you can't watch it that earlier, it is recorded and you can go back and watch it later. The change is that we must move platforms from Youtube to Facebook. I did not want to make this change but Youtube won't allow me to livestream directly from my phone. We are working on more permanent solutions, but for now this is our stopgap. To watch the service on Sunday morning, go to: https://www.facebook.com/St.AndrewsMH/live/ I think you will be able to see it without having to log in. I want to emphasize that we will only be using Facebook hopefully for a short time before we get a better livestreaming solution as part of our return to in-person worship. Look for more information about that soon. Blessings on you all, and I greatly appreciate your patience and grace as we navigate these complicated times. Fr. Kevin A Letter from Bishop Benfield
On Monday I sent a guideline for reopening congregations to our churches, stating that for about half of our congregations, it will be possible to begin some form of in-person worship on Sunday, May 31. Whether or not your congregation will choose to have outdoor, indoor, or online worship will depend in part on the active Covid-19 cases in your county. Many of our rural congregations are in areas where there has been little infection, while urban areas have been hit more severely. We will keep tracking cases in each county every week to help with ongoing congregational decisions. A surge in infections might require a return to online worship in some places. Under no circumstances should your congregation begin in-person worship unless your leadership feels comfortable and able to do so, and congregations should find ways to accommodate individuals who remain at home because they are not ready to join a large number of other people in a worship service. This is a new adventure for the church. For example, for the time being even our larger congregations with resident priests will get more experience with Morning Prayer than has been the case in the past. We need to figure out how to stay safe in the very act of gathering before we add the complexity of distributing Holy Communion. We can find creative ways to continue to be active, worshiping, outwardly-focused congregations in the coming weeks and months. The church has endured and grown and changed through times of pestilence and plague throughout its history. We will do so again. I thank each of you for your continued support of the church—and especially for one another and the most vulnerable among us—in this challenging time. We can step forward with confidence in our mission and continue to serve the world around us. The service booklet can be found here:
Click link for booklet The readings can be found here: Click link for readings |
Service TimesDue to COVID-19 in-person worship is suspended until further notice. Contact Us
870-425-3560 Email St. Andrew’s 511 Coley Drive Mountain Home, AR 72653 OFFICE HOURS Tuesday–Thursday, 8:30 a.m.–12 p.m. |