Rogation Sunday is upon us. The Sunday before Ascension Day is traditionally a day when we raise our voices to God in supplication for health, prosperity, justice, and well-being for ourselves, the community, and the whole world. While the focus is often on agriculture and horticulture, on Rogation Sunday we ask God not only to bless our farms and gardens, but also our homes and businesses, our government and social services, our military and medical facilities, our air and water, and for health, justice, and well-being for everyone everywhere.

Rogation Sunday is a sort of New Year service for the beginning of summer. We raise our voices in supplication in the sure and certain hope that God will hear us and give us what we need for the coming year. The days following are a great time for prayerful spring cleaning and prayerful mind-opening, letting go of what is no longer healthy or helpful, and making space for God to fill with renewed growth and grace. We are also preparing to celebrate Jesus taking his place at the right hand of our Creator and to welcome the awesome, life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.

It is in this context that we are making preparations for how we will worship together in the coming months. We are still preparing. We have done quite a lot of cleaning around the church, but we still have to finish devising protocols for safely welcoming people back together. We have been given specific guidelines from the diocese, and your Regathering Task Force has begun interpreting them for Trinity. You will soon be receiving a survey that will allow you to have a voice in when, where, and how we arrange services. There is so much to do!

The very soonest we will be allowed to come together would be—appropriately—the Feast of Pentecost. This is not guaranteed, but we are working toward that goal. Whenever we can gather, it will surely be with a mix of emotions: joy and relief, but also some fear and anxiety. It will undoubtedly feel strange. Not everyone will be able to join us physically. Some may be joining us online, and others by telephone! But all of that is and will be holy and blessed, just as it was for those gathered on that first Pentecost, a day of wonder and entering into a new phase in the life of those who follow Jesus, a new beginning for the Church. Amen

In peace,