Emerge SF at Churchtogether.today

Happy Sunday! Time for church!

Yesterday Pres. Biden asked churches to ring bells as the luminaries were lit during the memorial for Covid-19 victims. Temple doesn't have steeple bells so we played handbells.

I've been agitating for better, more creative theological thinking about the Eucharist, virtual community, and new forms of liturgical celebration during this p...andemic - mostly on Twitter, some via email, and in private conversation. As a result, a friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) wrote this poem in honor of the theological vision for which I've been advocating. My hope in raising these issues is NOT to harm the church. It is that the beauty which the church hides, the food that she is hoarding, may be spread abroad into the world as God's greatest healing gift - and in the bountiful spirit of the Resurrected Christ, the One of Abundant Life. I love this poem. And these words capture my sense of sacrament as if they came from my own heart. * * * * An Order for Communing in a Pandemic by Anonymous She took a loaf of bread, broke it and gave it, half to the hungry, the poor, the millions whose gap-toothed pantries are emptying, dwindling sand racing through the widening neck of an hourglass and she felt the weight of a sacrament pressing into her soul as the body and blood of Christ spilled out of doors, into streets, into homes, flowing as freely, as slick and messy, as uncontrolled, as it did from his own tortured body, as if God really could be present everywhere and in everything.

Here is San Francisco Temple UMC's Palm Sunday Service! Enjoy!