An opportunity to love

Parishes are reopening, returning to in-person gathering. There’s a sense of relief. Also, of some anxiety. Mother Erika Takacs, Rector of Atonement, Chicago offered her parish a bit of guidance for this time of transition as a Eucharistic community. I’m sharing part of her message here.

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This transition is a wonderful sign of renewal and return, and a profound testament to the power of human ingenuity, hard work, and creativity. The efficacy of these new vaccines is allowing us to begin to rebuild and reconnect after these months apart, and I encourage you to get vaccinated if you have not already.

As I said in my announcements on Sunday, this transition provides us with a very real opportunity to practice loving one another as Christ loves us—by truly seeing and listening to one another. Not all of us will receive these changes with the same emotions. For some, this reopening will feel exciting and overdue. For others, it will feel uncomfortable. Some may decide to come back to church now; others may decide to go back to streaming for a while. All of us will have a different response to this transition, and I invite you to do everything you can to respect all of those responses. If you want to hug someone you haven’t seen in a while, and they back away from you, smile and give them an air hug instead. If you want to sit in a pew next to a newcomer, ask them if you can join them before you sit down. Give space to those who need to walk around you, be sensitive to those who are still masked, and try to be as transparent and loving as you can to everyone who is sharing space with you.

When I was little, I used to get nervous going to birthday parties. I’m an introvert, and large crowds of excited children used to make me shy. I worried – would anyone talk to me? Would I feel comfortable enough to have fun? One day my mother gave me some remarkably effective advice: Go to give a good time, not to get a good time, she said. In other words, ask myself: how could my presence help to give someone else joy? This seems to me to be a good question for us in these times of transition—how can our presence provide someone else with comfort or ease? How can we go to give a good time, not just to get a good time?

If you have questions or would like to talk more about this new reopening, I encourage you to reach out to me or to our wardens. Any of us would be very happy to speak with you. And I look forward to seeing you soon.

The Very Rev'd Erika Takacs

Rector