Canons

You may remember that Bishop Hughes talked about sabbath a few weeks ago in The VOICE Online. She encouraged us to find the activities and patterns that help us to take care of ourselves, to be good stewards of our own self. I’m bringing this message to you on behalf of Bishop Hughes this month because she is doing exactly that – after a full and extraordinary program year and a very busy June, including General Convention, Bishop Hughes is practicing what she preaches and taking some time this month for sabbath.

Summer is winding to a close, before long. While we know that technically the season continues until the fall equinox, around September 21, summer feels like it ends at the end of August – or perhaps through Labor Day weekend. How has your Summer of Sabbath been? Have you had an opportunity to unplug, to reset, to step into the margins of your schedule a bit? Even if it’s just a day or a portion of a day – even a stolen brief hour or cluster of minutes – it makes a difference. I hope that you have had some time for rest, for refreshment, for reconnection.

Canon Clark checks in with us on how our Summer of Sabbath is going and suggests ways to share the idea of Sabbath with others. (Time: 6:31.)

Canon Clark says that "Sabbath rest starts to disconnect us from the anxiety of the world, and open our hearts to turn more fully towards God. And when we turn more fully towards God out of this place of restfulness, we can be grateful, and we can seek and find the things that give us true joy, the things that God has made us for." (Time: 5:52.)

Sometimes it's hard to know what we're supposed to do to follow Jesus, says Canon Clark. She commends to you two programs coming up this fall that are all about developing the "how" of following Jesus. (Time: 4:00.)

After almost 18 months, Episcopal House has reopened, beginning yesterday, September 7th. In March 2020, Bishop Hughes closed Episcopal House for routine use as part of our response to the pandemic. This decision was reinforced by the Governor of New Jersey’s directive at the time that anyone who could work from home should do so. Most of the diocesan staff has been working from home either completely or on a hybrid schedule, though some staff members have been in the building regularly, depending on their work responsibilities.

In the course of the summer we have seen our entire diocese move to a lower risk level (Yellow or Medium Risk on covidactnow.org) in June, but many counties in our diocese have returned to a higher risk level (Orange or High Risk) since then and, in the case of Essex County for a week or so, even a brief return to Red or Very High Risk level. As of this writing at the end of July, all our counties are Orange/High except for one Yellow/Medium county.

On Wednesday, May 19th, in response to the improvement in COVID-19 risk levels, Bishop Hughes issued a revision to the Journey Forward guidelines for the diocese.

The Bishop’s current maximum attendance limit is 100 persons at an in-person gathering, whether indoors or outdoors, provided those present can maintain 6’ distance between households.

Bishop Hughes is planning to schedule services for Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows this summer, in July and August, for all those candidates originally scheduled for 2020. Services were postponed because of the pandemic and the necessity for these services to be in-person.