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Dear Hot Metal Community,
The COVID-19 pandemic is an everchanging and new landscape. We have been keeping up to date with the latest news and developments, including Governor Wolfe's mandate to close all public schools for two weeks, beginning this Monday. After careful and prayerful discernment, the Council and Staff and I have agreed the safest and most loving thing for the community is to follow suit and cancel our in-person worship gathering this Sunday, March 15. We hope that this will encourage and support appropriate physical distancing and thereby limit the transmission of the virus.
A worship experience will be posted online on our Facebook and YouTube pages. Council will be meeting further this weekend to determine longer-term plans about worship, the Table ministry, and the best way to make sure all needs are met during this time.
While there is still yet to be a confirmed case of the virus in the area, we are learning from places that have dealt with this crisis already, and following the advice to begin physical distancing earlier, rather than later, to "flatten the curve" and reduce transmission as much as possible. We are planning on new ways to provide food for those in need. Please be on the lookout for how you can help us and your neighbor in concrete ways.
If you would like to continue to give financially, and help us make sure we can carry out our mission to "be a bridge to Jesus Christ" even in the midst of distance and pandemics, please consider giving online at https://hotmetalbridge.churchcenter.com/giving.
If you would like to contribute any tech or artistic talents as we move toward a creative worship approach for the near future, please reach out to me via email (pastorerin@hotmetalbridge.com)!
In 2 Timothy 1:7 (not a book I use often, but has some good nuggets of insight), Paul tells us, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” We trust that cancelling in-person worship is not a fearful response to the challenges ahead, but a faithful one that is rooted in love of our neighbor. We trust that Christ shows up in our midst, even when we're not physically together. May God grant you peace and strength on this day and always.
Pastor Erin
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