We gather as many individuals, yet we are one body.

We gather in many places, yet we belong to God’s kingdom.

We gather as God’s many children, yet we are one church.

We are one body, gathered in God’s kingdom, as God’s church. Alleluia!

These are the words with which we begin each online worship service. During this Covid-19 pandemic, we have had to be nimble with our worship plans, switching quickly from in-person to online-only worship. This week we have made the shift back to online worship and meetings and classes. Schools and businesses are making the same kind of quick shifts, and this is our landscape right now: if we are to prevent our hospitals from overflowing, and if we are to keep one another healthy and strong, we shift. We shift from being together, to being apart. We shift from talking face to face, to talking on our devices. We shift from learning in a classroom, to learning online from our homes. It's a lot of shifting, and sometimes it feels like seismic shifts...like an earthquake.

And yet--

We gather.

And we are still one body--the body of Christ--still gathered in God's kingdom, and still very much God's church.

Thanks be to God!