What a joy it was to be with so many of you in person last Sunday at High Rock Park to celebrate our annual water communion ritual and kick off the liturgical year! I knew that I had missed being with you all in that way, but it was almost overwhelming to be with you and hear you all singing.

Unfortunately, we can’t be together like that in person in our sanctuary just yet, but please know that we are working toward it. The purchase of some air purification units has been proposed and we are also looking into the cost and viability of upgrading the filtration capability of our existing HVAC.

This Sunday Judith and I, and possibly one or two more members of the worship team will be zooming from the sanctuary. It will be an opportunity for us to experiment with how to zoom effectively from the sanctuary. We want what’s in the sanctuary to get zoomed, and (more complicated!) we also want what’s zoomed to get in the sanctuary. We will likely need some new equipment for this, such as a camera and/or microphone. Putting our experience from last Sunday’s water communion with this Sunday’s Zoom from the sanctuary will give us a better sense of what we need.

Looking at the Covid Act Now website, Saratoga County continues to hover near the boundary between “High” and “Very High” infection risk levels. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping that the infection rate will calm down as the current levels of risk will interfere with our hopes for moving toward indoor in person possibilities for worship. I would very much love to be singing with you all, as for me that is a primary way that I experience spirit and soul. Why did singing together have to be the riskiest thing we could do?

Ah well. Let’s take a breath of clean filtered or outdoor air. And we’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other.

We need each other!
Blessings,
Rev. Joe