Friday, January 1, 2021

January 1, 2021 - A Personal Synopsis of Creator's Life and Worship in 2020


"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been."
Rainer Marie Rilke

As we look forward to 2021 what is in my mind is what I was thinking about a year ago. The, when writing about Creator's Epiphany Sunday worship, I started with the Rilke quote above. For me, at the time, this was a quote full of hope and promise. Obviously, at the end of this year, I read it now with a knowledge and experience of what happened in 2020. There are a handful of years in life where there is a certainty, when looking back of events that occurred, that life will be viewed as what happened before and what happened after our lived-through events. 2020 was certainly one of those years.

 "Know that I am with you as you journey to the cross this Lent, and know that the Lord is with you, too."
Pastor Ray McKechnie
 
This was how Pastor Ray closed his letter in our March monthly newsletter. On March 22, 2020, he passed away from a sudden heart attack.  Our community obviously felt and continues to feel this loss deeply. On the same week concerns about the pandemic stopped us from physically gathering for worship. Creator's first ever Zoom meeting was our community processing our emotions and thoughts about Pastor Ray's death together with we would do in response.

The 23rd Psalm came to mind for many that day, both preceding and during that Sunday' Zoom meeting. Particularly the words "He leadth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul" and yes, the King James translation is still one I can repeat by heart. This was, coincidentally, the Psalm reading in the Sunday lectionary.Yet most of us did not feel at the time we were being led beside the still waters. 
 
Pastor Ray was beloved by so many of us and his sudden death was like being tossed in the rapids rather than by the still waters. Our sure footing also seemed threatened as we, at the same time, began to learn about coping with the coronavirus. Despite all this we remained hopeful that God was watching over and leading this community, together with those around us, to support living life and loving beside those still waters.

Josh Stromberg-Wojcik led us the next Sunday in our first online worship through Holy Week. Everyone wondered when things would get back to normal or we were lamenting living in this "new world" we found ourselves in.

Easter and Lent were full of the death and life. Easter is a season for thoughts about this but for Easter this season as a congregation we were more directly engaged and obviously didn't know the amount of death that was to touch us from the pandemic. What was obvious last April was that the grief, joy, isolation and togetherness that were involved with Easter 2020 meant that this congregation would not be the same congregation we were before. We found we vacillated between our lamentation and hope.

On Maundy Thursday there was no communion. In our hearts that was wrong, but there was no time to even imagine trying to make that work. We were told what is essential about communion could not be virtually transmitted. However, the command to love one another was made easier since we were able to see one another and share this holy day in many unique ways. A few of us were involved in setting up the camera and assisting in worship at the building.

Good Friday I experienced from home. This year's Good Friday felt far too real for words. The death and the darkness were more than figurative in a way I had not felt before. No imagined grief. There was the body count on the nightly news and death began to surround us.

Easter Vigil is a time for telling the stories. This year individual members told the stories of Creator. These stories captured and who we had been and who we are, Creator needed to be reminded of the roots of the church on Saturday and the service shared that well.
 
The Oregon Synod hosted Easter service for all the member congregations. Our Bishop  described this Easter Zoom Service as gorgeous chaos. Everyone was new to Zoom. When most of us did not break out smoothly into the breakout rooms it felt more like the Holy Spirit was present, not less. Bishop Laurie gave a sermon about the previous pandemic and the effect it had on her grandmother's life that touched us all, We were connected with each other and those who preceded us. At the same time we normally sing our triumphant holy day songs on Easter but what was in our hearts was more nuanced.
 
Lila, a congregation member, passed away on Easter and Linda, another former member died two days later. Many of tried to process all these deaths individually and many felt something was missing. We had not experienced this number of deaths in so short a time and because we could not perform the specific ritual we reserve for that process. 
 
Pastor Janell became our Interim Pastor and led her first service at Creator on April 19th, the Second Sunday After Easter. After the sermon, the Litany of Welcome was filled with the Holy Spirit and seemed to hint at possible directions for the big dreams that we hoped and dreamed of for Creator as we started our time of transition. Many times this year we have reflected on and refined those dreams.
 
On On May 25th George Floyd died and June was a month that awakened Creator's advocacy, as it did for so many in the nation. Creator had already planned an ELCA recommended commemoration for the Emanuel 9. Several other churches gathered for the occasion on June 17th.                                                                                 

What we ended up reacting to and planning was on June 3rd when we were told that Creator was on the route of students and others participating in the BLM Pacific March from the Clackamas High School to Happy Valley City Hall. Creator members both participated and handed out drinks and snacks to the crowd.

In June Creator's newly formed COVID Care Team began meeting and providing valuable information and recommendations on how Creator should act and make future plans for the pandemic. This team has balanced our reactions of complaint and compassion. We disciplined ourselves to comply with the regulations, but, intermittently, we have struggled to reach one, united response. The COVID Care Team has led us more to the more compassionate response over the immediate complaint.
 
On July 5th, inspired by Pastor Melissa Reed after a nationalistic speech given by our President at Mt. Rushmore, Creator decided to explore the history of the land Creator was built on to try to honor past people and their history with an Honoring the Land and People Affirmation in our worship. We are still exploring the history of the land that our church building occupies. 
 
On August 9th, 2020 many of us watched the Installation of Pastor Lenny Duncan at Messiah Lutheran in Vancouver with Nadia Bolz-Weber preaching. That event contributed to us choosing to read Duncan's book Dear Church together in our Book Group. Throughout the summer Creator, like many others, felt the need to act on the racial reckoning that was particularly occurring on Portland's streets. Creator helped organize a synod-wide group, Listen, Pray Act, that met in September, October and November to focus on inspiring some straight-forward action around advocacy.
 
In September also Creator's attention turned to local relief and support. The beginning of September brought wildfires to our state and county. Creator responded by offering our parking lot to anyone who had a motor home and provided tables and a large coffee urn to the effort to help the community at the Clackamas Mall. 
 
Of course this was triggered by an immediate need. It was only a part of what Creator has done before and since the pandemic. Our church continue to feed 100 homeless people monthly with meals for Our Father's Heart Street Ministry. We also cook for the Clackamas Veterans Village. Each month Creator supplies food and other household items to certain families from the Lot Whitcomb grade school. During the pandemic it has been critical for these families to receive extra food as the children are not in school during the day. We also made efforts to provide rent relief for vulnerable families and, as a congregation, we have been involved with the Oregon Food Bank through our giving of food items for Kings Cupboard.
 
Creator's newly newly formed Transition team began meeting in November. They will support the call process of our new pastor by completing a Ministry Site Profile. This profile helps fill in a snapshot of who we are currently as a congregation and what we will need when we call our new pastor.
 
December saw the rollout of our new website which was needed because the old website's foundational platform was no longer going to be supported in 2021. When Pastor Ray was first called to Creator he frequently expressed his wish for a better, more up-to-date website. He began the project in earnest this year. So, beside the necessity of the new website, this work was done as a tribute and a way to honor the memory of Pastor Ray.        
 
On Christmas Eve Pastor Janell asked the congregation a question to answer in the Zoom chat box, "What is birthing within us". What first came to my heart was, "A vision of the future for Creator and the providing hope for our neighbors". 
 
2020 was a year where Creator remained on our path to do work on both.
 
Valerie Kaur Quote

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