The Falcon Heights Church building will remain closed until specific safety benchmarks can be met in the church and the wider community.

Earlier this month, the Executive Board endorsed the report from a COVID-19 Short-Term Working Group that incorporates three principles:

• Our responsibility as a Christian community to care for one another
• Recognition of churches’ role as “superspreaders” of the pandemic
• Adoption of new language that more accurately reflects our situation, i.e., replacing “reopening/resuming/back to normal” with “adapting/beginning/new normal.”

In line with those principles, “the Board will only consider opening or gathering when official approval and guidelines are issued along with dates for a staged reopening of Minnesota churches, robust community testing, contact tracing and vaccine availability.”

However, our church remains live and well, and we continue to seek new ways to carry out Christ’s ministry in our community and our world. If we can’t be in the building, we have outdoor spaces we can use and share with our neighbors. We will also continue to use and, we hope, expand our use of online platforms such as Zoom and Facebook Premiere. In fact, we want to encourage entrepreneurs in the congregation to initiate new online small-group gatherings and activities. The working group’s report includes a Google Docs spreadsheet for sharing ideas.

Each year we receive an offering for One Great Hour of Sharing, an ecumenical campaign that supports people-helping initiatives worldwide. Our OGHS offerings are invested in such things as education for girls and boys, vocational training, microcredit lending that helps people become self-sufficient, and other sustainable solutions that offer dignity to all. Through OGHS, we also support disaster relief and refugee initiatives.

This year’s offering is April 26. Since we can’t collect the offering in person, you can mail a check to the church (mark OGHS in the memo line) or, even easier, give online. Use our new text donation or eGiving portal and designate your gift for One Great Hour of Sharing.

We share Holy Communion in our online services the first Sunday of the month, and we invite you to join us at home.

Before the time of the service, you will want to prepare some bread — a slice or a small loaf of any kind of bread. In some parts of the world, tortilla, rice cake or cassava are used as this element, which is defined not as a wheat product but as the most common food of the people. Let it be something that you by yourself, or with others in your house, may break and share. Prepare a cup or cups of juice — perhaps grape or cranberry — or whatever you have on hand. We believe that Jesus makes the common things holy!

Set these elements in the living room or kitchen or wherever you experience worship electronically with the FHC community. Perhaps you want to put them on a lovely cloth or fabric that reminds you of a special time or a person deeply connected with you in the communion of saints. Perhaps you will light a candle or place a flower or plant or the photograph of someone you wish to bring into the circle of faith beside the bread and the cup.

Thank you for your preparation.

There are now two new ways to give during this time when we can’t physically be in church to pass the offering plate.

By text. Text “Give” to 651-240-6681 (without the quotation marks). You will receive a response with a link to set up your donation and payment information. Select the account where you want the donation to go (plate, pledge, food shelf, etc.) and enter either your bank routing information or credit card number.

Via our new eGiving Portal. Go to https://www.elexiogiving.com/app/giving/falconheightschurch and follow the directions there. You will also find donation buttons at the top of the FHC home page and in the footer area at the bottom of each page on our website.

More info on text giving:

• In case of a mistake, text “Refund” within 15 minutes to reverse the transaction.
• To modify your giving account information, text “Edit” to the same number, 651-240-6681.

Giving by either method will link to your annual giving statement. You can set up recurring donations or pledge payments as well as one-time donations.

Many members of our congregation already give their pledges through electronic funds transfer (EFT). Whichever method you prefer, remember: Even though Falcon Heights Church is operating off-site during the COVID-19 pandemic, the church still needs your support to continue our ministries and pay the bills. Thank you for your support!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the incredible and immense work food shelves have taken on at this time, the March FoodShare Campaign has been extended through April 30.

Our FoodShare recipient, the Department of Indian Work, cannot accept food deliveries at this time. In speaking with them, we found that the best way to support them financially is to visit their website HERE and click the “DONATE” button at the top. On the donation page, you will be able to specify the Department of Indian Work as the recipient of your gift.

If you choose to donate through their website, please email Chuck Gramith at [email protected] with the amount you donated so that we can keep track of FHC’s overall giving.

Updated March 26, 2020