The following letter was sent to the All Souls Congregation on March 16:

I had this dream, and in it we all went a little nuts…hoarding canned goods, hand sanitizer and toilet paper of all things!  Oh, wait.  THAT really happened!  

But in my dream, after all the hoarding was over, compassion, dignity and common sense returned.  The people began thinking about those who do without under the best of circumstances.  They went into their pantry, shelves drooping under the burden of all those canned goods and pasta, they grabbed a few items they could do without, and they decided to share them.
(To be continued…)

Greetings Members and Friends of All Souls!

First of all, I apologize for not being with you last weekend.  In light of everything happening right now, I really wanted to put eyes on you all before we hunker down into this covid-19 “sabbatical.”  However, I sort of blew out my right knee and so that quickly came off the table of possibility!

Anyhow…I do want to update you on some ways of staying connected over these next few weeks.  As George Carvill said, “I know we are all “virtuous,” but starting next week we will be ‘virtual,’ too!”

The plan is to conduct on-line services on an on-line meeting platform. We are all new at this, it will be a learning experience. But like all learning experiences, we stand a good chance of growing from it! If you go to our church’s website, ascvt.org, you will see a new menu item, “Virtual Services.” Click there and you will find two important things.

First, there are simple directions to download the application onto your device, (computer, laptop, smartphone, etc.) and to test your device.

If you are someone who doesn’t have internet access, All Souls Church still values you and wants to keep in touch. These virtual meetings will have phone numbers that you can use to participate also. There will be more news on this front, as well.

Finally — and this won’t be the last time you hear this — even if we are closed, we still have to pay the bills and staff as well as support those with whom we share the plate. We do not have a way to accept your donations online. So I ask each of you to mail in a check in whatever amount you would normally put in the plate. Remember to write on the check how much should go to the church and how much to the organization we are sharing with this month.

If anyone has questions regarding their technology, please contact George Carvill by e-mail.

And speaking of George, let me just say a BIG “thank you” now for all the work you have done to get us up and running in the 21st century!

Beloveds, stay tuned for future installments of “The Dream” (with which we began this communication) and remember…clean hands and open hearts!  We’ll get through this.

With All Love-

Rev. Shayna