NOT Bishop’s Journal – December 11, 2020

To the Clergy, People, and Friends of the Diocese of Eau Claire,

As I did last week, I am forwarding to you all the Covid-19 Task Force’s weekly report. That report is attached to this email as a separate pdf, and should be considered in conjunction with your county’s Health Department. Please note two other reports from Jo Glasser and the Task Force that should help to clarify some misunderstandings surrounding the vaccine and related issues. As the Church, we can play an important role in making sure everyone understands the vaccine correctly and isn’t working from a place of ignorance.

Additionally, the Ven. Jo Glasser and Dn. Marlene Hogue will continue the Sunday Evening Prayer Service for now. That service is open to anyone. Click here to access Sunday Evening Prayer.
The meeting number each week is 98552275083. The password is: 869812.

The clergy of the Diocese will also continue to meet on Zoom on Fridays at 10 am. Click here to access the Friday, Diocesan Clergy meeting.
The meeting number each week is 9872918037. The password is: 383734.

Fr. Benjamin Thomas is spearheading a diocesan-wide Lessons & Carols Service that will be held via Zoom on December 24th at 6:00 pm. That service will include clergy and laity from around the Diocese of Eau Claire and will also be live streamed on the diocesan Facebook page. As a part of that service, we’d also like everyone to send us a few photos of your church at Christmas. It could be from a service, a coffee hour, an outdoor shot, etc., but it should be obviously Christmas time in the photo. You can send those files directly to me, or you can upload them using this Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ 1S30_hc4jBZzNL6jVPS_vCRB8ZNho96Ln?usp=sharing

As one last thought that came out of the Clergy meeting this morning, it is becoming quite common to see the action (or inaction) of others at this time and be filled with frustration or anger at how they are handling everything from the election to the virus to their family holiday celebrations. We would be wise to remind ourselves that even our incarnate Christ was filled with frustration and anger at people’s behavior sometimes. After all, one doesn’t throw over tables and run everyone out of the temple market to get laughs. However, even in those times when He was filled with frustration, he always quickly turned to pitying us. We should do likewise. We might easily pity people for the difficult world they’re struggling to endure, or even pity them for their misunderstanding of the virus, or vaccines, or any other number of things. The anger is real, understandable, and even justifiable, but we must follow it with pity for the pains they’ve endured to bring them to this point. If we fail, we are in good company. The best of us have failed more often than they can count.

As always, we’ll keep you up-to-date with the work to finalize our agreement with Bp. Gunter, but until then the leadership of the Diocese has us in good hands. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I’ll help in any way that I can.

Yours in the Love and Charity of Christ,
Canon Aaron Zook