St. Michael's, we are coming back! Thanks to the new guidelines that came out Tuesday, we are able to have 50 people in the nave at one time, and we are returning to our 8 am and 10 am service times.  We still must wear masks, you will need to make a weekly reservation, we cannot yet sing, but we can be together spread out in the nave and receive communion. You can always check our status for region 10 by going here: http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19 . 
                In addition to the in-person 8am and 10am, we are keeping the same Zoom link active for both of those time slots, so join us in person or over Zoom at 8am and 10am for worship.  I have never tried to have a Zoom service AND an in-person service, but here we go! 
                I am also grateful this week for a very successful annual meeting on Sunday.  Considering the amount of snow we had, I am very glad we chose to have it on Zoom.  I am also grateful to our new vestry who have stepped up to lead in a difficult year; we need good, strong lay leadership every year and especially now.  
                I am still making plans for Ash Wednesday, but the new in-person guidelines helps a lot.  We will offer the imposition of ashes and Communion on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, so stay tuned for service times for in-person/zoom. 
                Finally, if you have not, I invite you to watch the extended version of our ministry report this year.  Instead of lengthy, typed reports, we went with videos of all the ministries and their work this year.  While a short version was shown on the Zoom Annual Meeting, this one is the full and glorious version you must see.  In fact, here are a few videos you might want to watch: 

• Zoom Annual meeting recording: https://vimeo.com/506871035/c380492a58
• Rector’s report: https://vimeo.com/504581213 
• Extended ministries video report: https://vimeo.com/506292746 

Hope to see you in church soon, 
Jesse+