Dear Friends,

I write this with a tender heart as we have had more losses to families in our community this week (see Losses in Our Community, below). I am grateful to have had the chance to offer pastoral care and to represent your love in action.

One way we know love is through the act of communion. I am thankful at Islington United for our Communion Committee members who care for and help prepare the sacraments each month so we can be at table together. We felt the absence of communion on Easter Sunday.

This Sunday we will celebrate communion together online. Please bring your bread and grape juice, wine or beverage of your choice to join with us. As the service unfolds, break your bread, pour your juice and share the meal during Peter Barnes’ solo: Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees.

As a family of faith, we are doing our best. Ministry and lay leaders, staff and members of our church family are all trying hard to figure out — together — how to be the church in this time. We continue to pray, share acts of love and generosity, connect through technology, and walk with each other through all seasons of life.

That’s the gift of the Passing the Peace/Good News section following the Sunday morning service each week: you can offer words of hope and stories that sustain. Please email me at maya@islingtonunited.org before Sunday to share anything you’d like.

May Christ’s Peace that passes all understanding continue to surround us in these days.

Rev. Maya