Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As some of you are already aware, I received a letter from the Archdiocese yesterday in which His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH directed every parish to reduce attendance at services from 10 people to 5 people. He also said that “we must not rotate” these 5 individuals. In other words, they have to be the same 5 people for every service. However, it is also my understanding that this rule is not being instituted until next week, beginning with Liturgy on Lazarus Saturday. This means we have some flexibility with who we schedule this weekend, but after that, we will have to commit to 5 specific people. I did discuss this situation with His Grace Bishop NICHOLAS, and he suggested we come as close as we can to the 5 person rule by tomorrow. That being said, I am making the following changes to the Orthros/Liturgy roster:
Clergy: Fr. Bob Sanford, Dn. Keith Hansen
Choir/Chanters: Mike Mullican, Shelia Mullican, Jack Parsons
Streaming: Joel Smith
As for Holy Week and Pascha, I am taking ushers and altar servers off the list to make room for additional readers/singers to help at the chant stand, which will be greatly needed. Here are the 5 people I am assigning for that week:
Clergy: Fr. Philip, Dn. Marek
Chanters: Brandon Bacca, Dan Kevorkian, Shelia Mullican
This schedule is still subject to change as it is conceivable that we may have tighter restrictions placed on us in the near future. Please know that these were extremely difficult decisions for me to make. I love you all and greatly value your service to the Church. I will miss having you there. It won’t feel quite the same, but I know you will be tuning in via live-stream and joining your prayers with ours “in behalf of all and for all.” May God bless you all and your families and may He grant us strength to get through the coming weeks. I look forward to the time when we can all serve, sing and worship together again.
In Christ,
Rev. Fr. Philip Begley
Senior Pastor, St. Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Church
3535 St. Ignatius Ln. Franklin, TN 37064