Dear Saints,
In March 2020, our dioceses, along with the rest of the Church, entered an unprecedented season necessitated by COVID-19 in our communities. With safety and care for all in mind, we made the difficult decision to restrict when and how we gather, and while we’ve entered some kind of new normal, we have not yet shared the Eucharist together in both kinds.
To take our next steps with theological grounding and careful reflection, we are appointing a temporary Task Force on the Eucharist and have charged them with two primary goals:
* Enhance our organic wisdom by offering theological reflections on the Eucharist
* Recommend practical guidelines for engaging wine/common cup during and after this extraordinary and exhausting season of COVID-19
We thank our group of thoughtful leaders from the three dioceses who will steward this call –
From Eastern Michigan –
The Rev. Thomas Downs – St. Paul’s, Gladwin
Jelecia Geraghty – St. Paul’s, Flint
Amy Simons – St. John’s, Saginaw
From Michigan –
The Rev. Dr. Andy Guffey – St. Mary in the Hills, Lake Orion
The Rev. Dr. Richard Hamlin – Retired
The Rev. Dr. Joann Kennedy Slater – St. Luke’s, Ypsilanti
From Western Michigan –
The Ven. Beth Drew – Trinity, Three Rivers
The Rev. Dr. Jay Emerson Johnson – All Saints, Saugatuck
Dr. Timothy Gombis – Grace, Grand Rapids
They will submit to us a report by March 23, and we will discern our forward movement with informed direction. We may have a few teach-ins in our dioceses to glean what we are learning and how we may grow in our spiritual and missional wisdom of being a Eucharistic beloved community in and through this unprecedented season. We invite your prayers for members of the task force and the work ahead of them.
As we keep the feast and remember the Holy One, our primary question remains: how might we reorient, remember and realign as the body of Christ?
Yours faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Prince G. Singh
Bishop Provisional
The Episcopal Dioceses of Eastern & Western Michigan
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Bonnie Perry
Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan