He is risen! He is risen indeed! However, when I served a local church, the day after Easter quickly moved from joy to exhaustion. It is even more of a reality these days with the weight of designing worship online and trying to help parishioners feel connected and loved even while their world is filled with fear. Yesterday also brought severe weather for some disrupting online worship services! For those not involved in leading virtual worship services, there is still a lot of pressure to respond to those who feel the grief of not having contact with families, mental challenges of isolation, and financial uncertainty.
In addition, overnight brought damaging storms to various areas, creating more anxiety – we have heard from various people in the path of the storms who report minor damage, and are waiting to hear from others. If we hear of anything more, we will post it on our Facebook page.
So….please…make sure that you are doing things that allow you to slow down and take care of yourself! Those involved in disaster ministries know that if you do not take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. Give yourself permission to do nothing …and just be!
Below are some opportunities this week which may be helpful to you. In addition, if there are ways that I can be helpful, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Blessings, Char Burch
Opportunities to take care of yourself:
- Tuesday, April 14 at 11 am Eastern/10 am Central: Clergy “Conversations and Prayer.” This is a time to share together and perhaps even “decompress.” Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/479440102
- Thursday, April 16 at 1 pm Eastern/12 Central: NEW! Live Harp Meditations for ministers during the month of April. Join us for a wee check-in followed by 20 minutes of meditation with the Celtic harp. Silent prayer and reflection will follow the meditation, depending on the needs of those gathered, facilitated by Rev. Jean Norton (questions can be addressed to Jean at HeartSongJean@gmail.com). Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/96976838422
Opportunities for Continued Learning:
- Wednesday, April 15 at 2 pm Eastern/1 pm Central: The UCC Insurance Board will present a webcast on addressing Human Resource questions during the pandemic: maintaining staff, reducing staff, etc. For more information and registration:www.insuranceboard.org/hr-issues-your-ministry-during-covid-19.
- Friday, April 17: At 12 pm Eastern/11 am Central, Convergence (Center for Progressive Renewal) will present a free webinar on “What will Happen to Our Churches Financially?” This continues a series of conversations with Diana Butler Bass, Traci Blackmon, Brian McLaren, Jaqui Lewis and Cameron Trimble about what COVID-19 means for churches everywhere. For more information: https://faithlead.org.
