The Elders and Pastor John met on Monday, June 8 and established an "open up" policy for Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Moose Jaw.
Pastoral Letter
Christianity is an incarnational faith. That means that the spiritual life is intimately connected with the physical life. Our salvation rests on God becoming flesh [incarnate] among us to enter into death on our behalf and rise from the dead to bring us with Him into the eternal life of God.
Our church services are incarnational. That means that the God's people form a community who gather face to face to experience God in various ways in the Divine Service, including touch, smell, and taste. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we are not able to fully experience communion with God and with the Church. We can see and hear services online but they are no permanent substitute for gathering around the altar of God to receive His gifts in Word and Sacrament. We long for the time to assemble in our church building for the Divine Service, as it should be.
Following the 4th Commandment Christians obey the government unless their directives are in conflict with the Word of God. The government of Saskatchewan is asking religious groups to hold services according to certain health directives. We will adhere to those directives as they are not a persecution against Christians but a matter of health and safety for our neighbour.
Emmanuel Lutheran Church will start using our church building for shortened Word & Sacrament services on Sunday, July 5. There will be a maximum limit of 28 people allowed to attend each service. All four Sundays in July will follow the same service at 10:00 am on Sundays. People and families can register to attend any one of the four services in July according to the maximum limit. You can register to attend a service by email or phone message. Once the limit has been reached for a particular Sunday you will be asked to choose another to attend. We are confident that by having four services in July all our members who desire to gather around Word and Sacrament will have the opportunity to attend during the month.
There will be health directives to follow, hand sanitizing procedures to respect, and social distancing maintained in the church building. We will continue this procedure month by month until the government allows larger groups to assemble.