“The Herald” Newsletter St
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“The Herald” Newsletter St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Worship. Learn. Gather. Serve. July 2020 10 Delp Road - Lancaster, PA 17601 (717) 569-9211 “In the face of the darkness light is near.” Job 17:12 Staff The Rev. Craig A. Ross, Senior Pastor St. Peter’s Take Out Vacation Bible School [email protected] Are you ready for a delicious and fun filled week? We can’t wait! The official start The Rev. Sarah Teichmann, th th Pastor of Christian Formation date for Take Out VBS is July 20 through July 24 . You pick the time of day to [email protected] engage your child on any day that works for you. Participate from your home while Sister Dottie Almoney, social distancing. Pre-registration is required. See page 13 for more information. Parish Deaconess [email protected] The Rev. Richard E. Geib, D.D., Pastor Emeritus [email protected] The Rev. Russell Rockwell, Building Use Safety Protocol Pastor of Word of Life rrockwell@word oflifedeaf.org As our county enters into the "green" phase, we are gradually opening up the church Dr. Adam Lefever Hughes building for church activities. Be informed about what to expect. Check out the June Director of Music 24 Weekly Update for safety protocol for being in the church. Additional information [email protected] can also be found on page 2. Erik Teichmann Inside This Issue . Contemporary Worship Leader Worship Schedule - 2 [email protected] Safe Church Protocol - 2 Cindy Geesey Director of Children’s Ministries United Lutheran Seminary - 4 [email protected] Live streaming worship Adult Christian Ed. - 5 Lorraine DiBernardo, Join us for worship each Committees– 6 Preschool Director [email protected] Sunday at 10:45 for Worship & Music - 9 Gary Williams, Parish Administrator Church @ Home. Groups & Events - 9 [email protected] Worship features our Pastoral Letters – 10 Sandy Shattuck, Parish Secretary Lutheran liturgy, prayers St. Peter’s Kids – 13 [email protected] for the community, a Youth Ministries – 13 JoAnn Harriger, Assistant Secretary sermon from one of the [email protected] St. Peter’s Preschool – 13 rostered leaders, music from our staff musicians, Janelle Almoney, Bookkeeper From the Volunteer Steward - 14 [email protected] Adam Lefever Hughes and Erik Teichmann, as Camp Corner - 14 well as special music from members of our Betsy Linn, Volunteer Steward Mission/Vision Statement - 15 [email protected] congregation. Looking Ahead/Calendar – 16 Nelson Gehman, Sexton Be church together on Sundays at 10:45 a.m. Kids Puzzle - 17 Laura Murse-Gilmore, Sexton https://www.stpeterslutheran.org/live/ For Your Information - 18 JULY 2020 WORSHIP SCHEDULE Sunday, July 5: The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Live Stream Worship online at 10:45 a.m. Pastor Ross Preaches (check e-news or the web site for a link to the live-stream) Sunday, July 12: The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Live Stream Worship online at 10:45 a.m. Sister Dottie Preaches (check e-news or the web site for a link to the live-stream) Sunday, July 19: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Live Stream Worship online at 10:45 a.m. Pastor Sarah Preaches (check e-news or the web site for a link to the live-stream) Sunday, July 26: The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Live Stream Worship online at 10:45 a.m. Pastor Ross Preaches (check e-news or the web site for a link to the live-stream) Safe Church Protocols As we move into the Green Phase of openings, protocols have been set up that will be in place when we are able to come back to our building. Green DOES NOT mean that things will be back to normal. We can only have 50 percent occu- pancy in each room. Your Safe Church committee has come up with the following protocols: 1. Masks are mandatory to wear inside the building. If you forget a mask, we will be able to provide you with a mask. 2. Temperatures will be taken upon entering for worship, meetings, etc. Anyone with a temperature of 100 degrees or over will be asked to return home. 3. Social distancing is expected – 6 feet apart 4. Access to the church office will be only through the front window. 5. One person at a time in the bathroom – unless it is a parent and young children 6. Bathrooms need to be wiped down after use (items will be provided) 7. For worship and meetings, we will be keeping a list of who is in the building (for contact tracing purposes) 8. We are asking those who are feeling ill not to enter the church. 9. If you end up with symptoms of COVID-19 or a diagnosis after you have been at church, please contact the church office. We know this sounds overwhelming, but our goal as a committee is to keep everyone who enters our door safe. If you have any questions, contact someone on our committee: • Joe Almoney • Kris Armitage • Mark Beauregard • Kathy Berkebile • Lorraine DiBernardo • Cindy Geesey • Geoff Groff • Cheryl Laub • Rob Morrison • Sister Dottie 2 Church @ Home Attendance During church leadership meetings and Zoom gatherings, some folks have raised the question about attendance for Church @ Home during this time of Covid-19. On May 3rd, people joining the live stream at the time of the service was about 452. We calculated that for June 7th, people joining the live stream at the time of the service was about 340 view- ers. This pattern of attendance follows our usual Spring to Summer attendance patterns when we meet in person. How did we calculate these numbers? Church @ Home is simultaneously live streamed on both Facebook and YouTube on Sundays at 10:45am. Following the worship service, we look at the “peak concurrent viewers.” What that means is that this was the peak number of devices attending the service at the time the stream was “live”–these viewer numbers have been consistent along the length of the service. We also want to take into account views that represent worshippers and not a device simply scrolling by the vid- eo. This is akin to when we gather in person our ushers taking attendance of people who have gathered in one space, and not counting people who’ve just driven by the church that morning. We take the number of peak concurrent views and multiply by two (an average of viewers on each device) to get the at- tendance. The Lower Susquehanna Synod guidelines have been less stringent, but we thought it helpful to have a more accurate reflection of our worshipping community that gathers digitally on Sundays at 10:45am. Viewing numbers for past worship services are available on these platforms, but unfortunately don’t represent an accurate view of those partic- ipating in worship. Who’s been tuning into our Church @ Home We hope you have been joining us for worship each week! And we hope that you have been inviting friends to join us for worship at https://www.stpeterslutheran.org/live/ and share God’s good news. We received some questions from church leaders and small group participants about who has been worshipping. Is our digital community all members? Are there a lot of visitors? Are they local or distant? We’ve looked into the demographic data provided by Facebook and YouTube, but at this time haven’t found these data to be reliable. For example, YouTube thinks that all our viewers (100%) are all over 65 years of age, but we know that this isn’t the case. We will continue to take attendance (peak concurrent viewers) each week for our church record. Weekly Updates Watch the church website https://www.stpeterslutheran.org every Wednesday afternoon approximately 4:00 p.m., for a short article updating news around the church for the week. It is our attempt to keep you connected to “all things St. Peter’s” and the continual unfolding of congregational life in a digital world. You’ll find updates on worship life, new Zoom groups that are beginning, news from the broader church and how it affects our life together, and service opportunities that may present themselves within our church and out in our community. Updates to the Church Directory Sometime in the next few months, you will be receiving a call from either a staff member or a volunteer asking to update your family’s information. You will be asked to correct your address, phone numbers, and email addresses since much of our data is outdated. We are also trying to categorize our adult children as to whether they are attending or have moved on to another worship experience. The goal is to establish an accurate membership roll. It is part of the important strategic plan that is being developed. If you receive a message, please respond. It is important to our future! Please feel free to contact Betsy Linn at [email protected] with any questions. 3 United Lutheran Seminary Names Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin As Next President The United Lutheran Seminary Board of Trustees has named the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, fourth bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as its next president. His appointment is effective August 1, 2020. Bishop Erwin succeeds interim president, the Rev. Dr. Angela Zimmann. “I am so very grateful that the Holy Spirit has brought us to this moment. With Bishop Erwin’s deep commitment to Luther’s theology of the cross, and his long history of working for justice, I believe he will lead the way in lifting up before our students and our church a greater sense of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ empowers us to be servant leaders in the world.