Christ Episcopal Church - Martinsville, VA

Existential Angst, God’s Grace, and Dogs Wearing Hats

My isolation began about six weeks ago. I was eager to take bold steps to be a priest to a congregation under quarantine, but I was unsure of how to go about this task. While trying out different ideas, I began to stream the Daily Office to Facebook Live. The Daily Office consists of prayer services for the morning, noonday and evening, and I was surprised how many people join in with me for each service. Saying those prayers every day over Facebook has been a constant for me during this bizarre time in the world. Though our platform is uniquely modern, the prayers are ancient, and have helped people for hundreds of years to mark the time and keep their spirit focused on God’s grace.

Blessings,

Nick

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Apologia

This has been a trying time for music, and musicians, in the church. While we have managed rather well to have morning prayer with a congregation via Zoom, it has been quite unsuccessful with music. We first tried prerecording the entire service, and the music came out well, but the congregation could not participate. We then tried the live service on Zoom, and the music was excruciating. Last week we tried prerecording the music and then adding it to Zoom and parts of it were better and parts were not. This week we will prerecord music again, tweaking some more things, in hopes that it will improve the sound quality. The real problem is that Zoom is meant to be a meeting venue. It is not at all geared toward music production and in fact tries to mute and distort anything that is not the spoken voice. If you have seen any of the performances on

YouTube or Facebook that purport to be live on Zoom, I can tell you they are not. Bear with us as we continue to strive to improve the quality of sound—-and I can’t wait to get back in church!

Lynn H. Gardner,

Organist/Choirmaster

Passing the Plate, Digitally

Even though we will not be literally passing the plate on Sunday, I encourage you to continue to keep in the Church in mind with your generosity. We are working harder than ever to continue to be the Church in this strange time, and we need your support. We have a PayPal link on the giving page of our website, where you can easily give online. A link to the page is below. If you prefer to give to the Church with a check or cash you are able to mail those gifts into the Church, or to simply put them through the mail slot of the Church office. Once again thank you for your support during this time when we are called to be physically distant.

Giving Digitally

Loaves and Fishes Serves

Weekly To-Go Meals

Many people are food insecure, moreso than before due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Skillfully directed by David Cole, a small group of volunteers has been serving 100 - 150 meals to community members since the end of March. The Mission Committee has agreed to supplement the Loaves and Fishes budget so we may offer weekly meals until the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions have passed. We will host to go meals only in the Parish House parking lot on Wednesdays. Many, many thanks to all!

Sunday Morning Coffee Hour with Bible Study and Worship Service Using the Zoom App, It's Easy!

Each Sunday we are hosting coffee hour, Bible study, and a worship service with music -- all through the Zoom App. The links to join the programming are published to the homepage of the website. Coffee hour with Bible study starts at 9:30 AM. We are currently reading through the book of Geneis pericope by pericope (a fancy word for section) to:

state a summary of the printed facts,
discuss the academics - the historic context, and how it fits in the larger picture,
and talk about the So What, how does that apply to today?

The Sunday morning worship service begins promptly at 10:30. Download the Zoom App and you will be set to go. If you have questions or concerns, email Nicholas Hull for assisstance.

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311 E. Church Street
Martinsville, VA | 24112 US

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