When last we saw our “cast and crew”, they were feeling marooned on an island called The Sanctuary. All attempts at communication from the island seemed to keep washing back up on their shore, and they were feeling alone, cold and isolated. They knew they needed to build a ship to communicate with the other islands far away across the sea, and they knew they needed materials (i.e. laptops, monitors, cameras, cables,etc) but try as they might, the local trees did not naturally produce any these items. And there was no IKEA or COSTCO on the island. Oh, what to do, what to do, they cried, why has the big Microchip in the Sky forsaken us?

Then, just as they were down to their last byte, what did they see in the horizon, floating towards them, something round and white drifting towards the shore……why it was a Life Saver with the words, “Donation from the Music Team”, and then another, “Donation from the Art Committee”, “Help from the Facilities Team”, and more and more they came, donations from this person and that person, and still they came, until they filled the entire shore with love and help from all the different islands out in the sea. The “cast and crew”, felt warmed by the love that shown from these Life Savers and they knew then that they were not alone on an island, but part of a wonderful, loving, supporting community and together they would build the ship that could communicate and connect all to one another. And, feeling renewed by what had been given, they got up and went to work once more to start building that ship.

In other words, THANK YOU EVERYONE for your monetary donations as we move forward getting the equipment and Comcast upgrades needed to provide Sunday services and keep us all connected!

In other news, part of what has come out of this is something called the Production Committee. It’s purpose is to have a small group of people connecting technological, worship and communication needs to facilitate accessibility in providing spiritual services to congregants both in-house and remotely (virtually). At the moment, members include: John Prohosky – sound, Jon Chinburg and Loriann Schmidt – video engineers, Sara Pickett – worship team, Sharon Pierson – communications and financial consultant, Rev. Rick Davis and Christine Ertl – consultants. If you would like to contact this group, please send an email to: Production@uusalem.org

Stay tuned to see what further adventures occur! Until then, we remain yours in service – Behind the Chalice