Read the full issue of this week’s Liberal here: The Weekly Liberal March 26

In this week’s newsletter, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

This past week, our online small groups and worship opportunities reached out across the country and the continents to welcome people in. We had visitors from Saudi Arabia, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado, Arizona, California, Alaska, and New Zealand – and these are just the ones I know about. Our message of love and hope, of no one outside the circle of a love so big that it will not let us go – is needed now more than ever. 

With the world at large and our worlds at home changing so much so quickly, it helps to remember who we are and what is most important. We are the people of love and hope, and no matter what is going on around us or inside of us, love is not cancelled. And I wonder, how is love showing up in your life, and how are you showing love?

Love showed up this past Sunday in my life in the form of a phone call. Your Co-Senior Minister Rev. Justin hit me up on What’s App and it was so good to hear his voice. Rev. Justin and his family are living across the ocean in New Zealand during this sabbatical time for him, which runs from January 1 to June 30. The area of the country where they are is not showing community transmission of the coronavirus at this point, and given the lack of federal leadership and testing here in the United States, I encouraged Rev. Justin and his family to stay put, and stay safe, trusting that as a church community we have what we need to take care of each other here. They will continue to monitor the information in New Zealand and here in the United States and make decisions week by week. 

We shook our heads in disbelief together, connected by some magical internet mojo. A global pandemic really isn’t in the protocol books for how to do ministry, or sabbatical. What is in the books about ministry, and what is so clearly in both of our hearts, is love. Love for each other and this church. Love for each of you. Love for the larger circle of people we will never meet (some of whom are joining us from Saudi Arabia!). Love for those who are with us and for those who will pass on. It is love that will keep us connected. Love that will lift us up. Love, that will make every suffering bearable for us all. 

Love,
Rev. Jen