There is no doubt that the COVID pandemic has fundamentally altered our lives in ways that we will not be able to comprehend fully for many years to come. Beyond the cultural shifts that have occurred to adjust us to the “new normal,” including converting our dining rooms to home offices and becoming experts on testing ourselves with nasal swabs and quarantining, the majority of us have either been ourselves or have come in close contact with people who have fallen ill. COVID has become so widespread over the last two years that those who are not sick were sometimes the exception. Hospitals were overwhelmed with patients. Medical staff has experiences burnout in ways we have rarely witnessed.

Whether or not COVID has befallen you or your loved ones, we are all familiar with the experience of being ill. You experience weakness, pain, and suffering when your health is compromised. This is a feeling that Jesus shared during his Passion and his death. We practice the anointing of the sick in order to connect those who have fallen ill with Jesus, whose own suffering can be used as a spiritual guide and serve to bring strength to the weak.

Anointing of the sick was widely practiced from apostolic times as a sacramental rite in association with the ceremony of the imposition of hands to convey a blessing or recovery from illness or with the last Communion to fortify the believer safely on his or her new career in the fuller life of the eternal world.

Please join us this Sunday, July 31, at 10:15 AM as we perform a healing service. You may also consider joining us for our outdoor worship at 8:00 AM (weather permitting, of course!) or our 6:00 PM indoors for Responsive Prayer worship.

Blessings,

Pastor Marc