April 5 Services have been Cancelled.
April 5 Services have been Cancelled.
Online “Virtual” Service
Please join us Sunday at 10:30 for a whole “virtual service.” With, music, prayers, message, scripture reading.
The Plan:
We will try to be as normal as possible in this abnormal and temporary situation.
Please prepare yourself and family. May I suggest, a respectful demeanor, including more respectful dress (no pajamas). Plan for sitting arraignments and standing when we sing. Avoid talking about other things, or getting up for other things. use the restroom before we meet.
Psalm 121:1 A Song of Ascents .
I Will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From whence shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who protects you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who protects Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your protector;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will protect your soul.
8 The LORD will protect your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.
Dear Congregation of the Lord,
How wonderful to know that in every conceivable or possible circumstance God is our Protector. We truly should not fear anything, for he loves us, saves us, and is sovereign over all. As RC Sproul was fond of saying, there is not one Molecule that he does not command.
We can “go out” (Ps 121:8) for our necessities knowing that he is going out with us. We can sleep, with the divine watchman standing watch over us so that no one or nothing can harm us. We can even gather and be certain that nothing can happen to us apart from the perfect, good, loving will of our heavenly Father.
But we also do not want to tempt the Lord when there are still extreme threats like Novel Coronavirus at its peak. And we certainly want to respect our governmental authorities. Therefore out of an abundance of caution, we as a council unanimously have cancelled service for several Sundays. And have also cancelled service for April 5 th. We were all in full agreement with this cancellation.
However, we applaud Governor DeSantis, who in his Stay at Home declaration designated church gatherings as essential services. We profoundly agree with this. In fact, all of you know that the true church is a most essential service, and arguably the most essential. And we hope, that very soon, we may be able to meet face to face, even if we have to observe physical distancing, advanced cleaning, and provide greater caution, under these circumstances.
Please know that your church officers meet and discuss regularly our responsibility to God and to you our dear flock: to protect you, to teach you; and we discuss the most recent news, government regulations and our responsibility to them. We weigh the call of the Lord to gather, with the call of the government and the counsel of CDC. We also ask for your patience and prayers as we weigh these heavy issues.
We ask you to pray for our president and governor to make wise and good decisions. We ask you to pray for our country and our sister churches who face the same crisis. Above all we ask you to pray that we may meet again and God would make this clear to us all.
Online Service:
This Sunday we plan to broadcast a “virtual service.” Please join us Sunday at 10:30 for a whole “service.” It will contain music, prayers, message, scripture reading.
The Plan:
We will try to be as normal as possible in this abnormal and temporary situation. You will be sent a link or several ways you may “watch,” “participate.” (terrible words, that reveal some of the incompleteness of this mode of worship.)
Dear heads of the home, please prepare yourself and family. May I suggest, a respectful demeanor, including more respectful dress (no pajamas). Plan for sitting arraignments and standing when we sing. Avoid talking about other things, or getting up for other things. use the restroom before we meet. Have hymnals ready (or printed songs available). A service bulletin will be printable too.
Your very affectionate servant,
Stephen Wetmore
Pastor, Trinity Reformed Church
2220 Hancock Bridge Pkwy
Cape Coral, FL 33990