Dear family in Christ,
By now you have heard that our church suffered another break-in last week. I am happy to report that the cleanup started this morning (Thursday) and is expected to take four days. The Ortloff organ was badly affected by the corrosive ammonium phosphate discharged from the fire extinguisher and will require extensive repairs. Jonathan Ortloff came from Boston yesterday to assess the instrument and make a plan for repairs. He will return with a crew of organ specialists after Easter to remove all the pipes from the organ, clean them, reinstall them, and retune the instrument.
You may have seen the coverage on KIRO 7 News on Tuesday evening of our church, and our continued work to feed people even after this latest break-in. Deedee Sun produced an excellent news story which you can see here. Our own Laurie Brown wrote a press release and sent it to the Shoreline Area News. You can see that article here.
No In-Person Palm Sunday
Sadly, the church will not be clean in time to celebrate Palm Sunday in our sanctuary. We will not be able to open, as planned, for limited in-person worship. We are moving the service to the Henry Chapel in the Highlands and producing it with the minimum personnel.
An Easter Return
That means that Easter Day, April 4th, will be the grand return of in-person worship. The registrations for this service are already full! I am grateful that there is such enthusiasm. We will open registration for each future Sunday on the Monday prior. I look forward to worshipping with all of you. It fills my heart with joy just to write this!
Click here for our Holy Week Schedule.
For a description of our reopening plans, see “In Person Worship Returns!” in last week’s newsletter.
I look forward to seeing some of you in worship soon. Please continue to be cautious, even if you are fortunate enough to have been vaccinated.
With love,