During this time of sheltering in place it is important to keep daily routines. I've been diligent in making sure I practice as many of my old routines such as walking Cowboy and Walker. It brings me great joy to see them happy; especially when they meet up with friends. Here Walker is saying hello to his buddy Winston. It looks like they are dancing with joy! No canine social distancing.
Early Sunday morning I combined my routine of walking with the ritual of worship by watching our JCPC worship on my phone. If you are like me you feel worshipful hearing the uplifting music, inspired by the preaching and moved by the prayers. As I was listening to worship one of my neighbors walked down his driveway so I took out my ear buds to greet him. "Same ole, same ole!" he quipped. Normally I would have responded in a similar fashion but this time was different. "Not for me, I said with a smile, I'm worshipping with my church on-line!" He tilted his head with surprise and then he said something he hadn't said in the 20 years that I've known him. "Okay, will you say a prayer for me?" he asked. "I sure will," I responded and then I prayed for him and his wife. The ritual of worship opened up a new reality in my daily dog walking routine.
This is Holy Week and our worship rituals have been affected by shelter in place. Our Good Friday ritual at JCPC has been to open the sanctuary for prayer. As we shelter in place we will still be observing the sanctity of Good Friday but in a different space because of safety concerns. We will be meeting virtually, on-line, for a Good Friday prayer service beginning at noon. The prayer service will last one hour and you can attend by using Zoom. We will be using the last seven words of Christ with which to structure our prayer time. Relax! You won't be ask to pray out loud and you will be moved! Please join us to pray!
Here is a link with the log-in information:
You can go to our JCPC Facebook page for login information and to access Zoom, or email me at nealk@jcpcusa.org.
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