Written by Stu Budgell
On a recent Sunday Morning, while attending Holy Eucharist at St. George’s, I was feeling rather discouraged due to the small number of our parish family in attendance. After coming home I began to think of what the year may have been like at St. George’s without COVID’s disruption.
At the start of 2020 we had a committee whose purpose was to consider our new furnace, get quotes and discuss the financing. This then led us to think of plans to increase membership and add to the vibrancy of our parish. Had we not been shut down by COVID here is how the year may have looked…..
In April we had planned a Community Fun Fair on our front lawn. Advertised across Hastings and with Christ Church and St. James parishioners invited, we had hoped to provide a day of games, food and historic tours. The hope was to open ourselves up to new members of the community and invite them to worship with us, sigh.
Our rummage sales and the lawn sale were gone, Christmas bazaar gone, five months of Book sales gone. Even, if we planned a scaled back Strawberry supper, it was gone. Sunday Services gone!
Special thanks go to Larry, Grace and Phyllis who maintained both the building and the exterior of the church. We were able to re-start the Book Sale in September and the success actually caused it to be closed for overcrowding during October.
……….
So now after these losses and hardships, we finally reopen and I sit here with six or seven other worshippers. Larry and Grace worked very hard implementing the COVID protocols. I believe the church is safer than any store or other public building in town. We have a sacred obligation to keep it alive; come on back folks. Our brothers and sisters from St. James are family to us and we welcome you to come and worship with us too. We have plenty of space even within the protocols. After all we have been through this year, let’s fill the building. We can face the new year with renewed friendship and hope. Let’s re-establish the joy of our worship families. See you soon.
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