1st April, 2020
Sisters and Brothers,
I greet you in the name of our common Lord
As you are aware, the COVID-19 crisis has brought significant changes to our schedule for the month of March and also for the remainder of the third quarter of the church year.
As I remind all our members and their families to continue to be vigilant and to adhere to the guidelines set by the relevant authorities – national, municipal, health – I remind us that observing the regulations is our responsibility as Christians who are called to love ourselves, and our neighbours, for God’s sake.
This is why, until notified otherwise, we will continue to use online means to share in divine worship together. Our schedule from now to Easter is as follows:
- Lord’s Day 5th April – Palm/Passion Sunday. 2:00 p.m. service streamed live from Zoetermeer
- Monday 6th to Thursday 9th April- Holy Week. Every evening at 7:00 p.m., I will present a brief meditation. You can also use the liturgies in your Prayer Book for each day. We have, necessarily cancelled the Love Feats for Holy Thursday but will have service live streamed at 2:00 p.m. on Good Friday, 10th We have also been circulating meditations by various ministers across the District and Connexxion. Please make good use of these in your family worship.
- On the Festival of the Resurrection (Easter) we will also continue with live streaming starting at 2:00 p.m.
Please note that all statutory meetings scheduled for March/April, the Rally of the Classes, and some other church events which require persons to come together, will be held at dates to be announced later.
Members who are able to, are reminded to contribute online their tithes and offerings for the continuation of church’s ministry. I am well aware that many of you have no income at this time and are needing support, so please do not regard this as a demand on those unable to contribute in this way.
As we look to Holy Week when we focus more deliberately on our Lord’s Passion – his suffering and death for our sakes, I remind us that Jesus, our High Priest, who chose to share our mortality, knows full wel, the pain and anxiety that we are experiencing.
I remind us, too, that his death was not the final event in God’s salvation plan, but the means through which we find forgiveness. And beyond the grave which he endured for us, is the victory of his Resurrection. Jesus not only died for our sins, paying the price with his blood. He rose for our justification. He ascended to and is even now at God’s right hand, interceding on our behalf. Victorious life in Christ is ours to claim today, even while the corona virus crisis could hold many captive in their anxieties and fears.
This is not to belittle the pain of the thousands who have lost loved ones. The COVID disease has already visited some of our families, and in at least one case, killed a loved one. But we need remember that death is not the end of those who trust in God.
This brings me to the important need for each to make life’s ultimate decision – the choice to be at peace with God. God has already done all that is necessary for you and I to know peace. We re-enact our Saviour’s crucifixion and resurrection to remind us of the cost of God’s love and the power of God’s love; but these two realities have already taken the required effect in the lives of those who accept God’s plan.
Will you, if you have not done so, trust God’s plan for salvation in Jesus Christ? And if you have, praise God and continue to seek the infilling of God’s Holy Spirit that indeed, even now, even in the face of this killer virus and the havoc it could wreak, you will share in the new life that God offers.
May the Lord’s richest blessings be yours today and always.
Joan Delsol Meade
Your Pastor