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Hello, and Happy New Year, however unusual and distant and challenged we feel. This week’s communiqué comes on the Feast of the Epiphany, where we celebrate the showing forth of God’s love in Christ to all the people of earth—reminding us that every child and adult on our planet is connected. A good thing to remember as we continue to take measures to limit the spread of a virus that affects everyone. 

With grateful hearts, we commend each of you for what is being done across our diocese to provide comforting online worship and pastoral care during this Red stage of our pandemic plan. Some parishes are producing online services with a small number of people present in the church, others are broadcasting from homes, and some have been welcomed into the online worship of neighbouring parishes. Whatever works best in your context is the right decision. 

The best motto for ministry in this lockdown is “keep it simple!” And if you can slow things down and do less for the next few weeks, then please do: we all need to conserve energy and take care of our mental health. Although the arrival of vaccines is very encouraging, we are all sobered by the rising number of cases in Ontario and Quebec. It will be some time before the pandemic ends, so we all need to pace ourselves, and to accept that some things can be set aside for the time being. 

If you have any questions, as ever, we are here for you at the help desk: C19helpdesk@ottawa.anglican.ca.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

COVID Communiqué is produced by the senior staff of our diocese:
Shane Parker, Bishop
Beth Bretzlaff, Dean
Linda Hill, Executive Archdeacon
Sanjay Grover, Director of Financial Ministry
Peter John Hobbs, Director of Community Ministries
Jane Scanlon, Director of Communications & Stewardship Development
Carol Sinclair, Director of Human Resources