As the holidays drew nearer, we kept hoping that numbers would go down far enough to where it would be safe to gather in our beautiful Sanctuary and feel the warmth of our church community around us.  But this year will be different.  We will provide spaces to grieve together and to rejoice together, but it is clear that to endanger any who would come to a worship service, risking the health of anyone and the spread of this virus, would be unwise.  Most other ELCA churches in our city have made this same decision.  And yet…. 

 

While this is hard, we have imagined some new ways for how we can keep Christmas “together” …ways that will still bring the peace, the joy and the hope that Immanuel (“God with us”) came to give us.