January 13, 2021

Good day siblings in Christ!

This week, the council met to discuss reopening and to began to spell out some benchmarks for reopening. We are looking at things like infection rates in Croton and the surrounding areas, the percentage of people who have been vaccinated, and whether or not the schools are open. We do not foresee opening in January, but February has a strong possibility if numbers look good in the area.

The worship team will meet next week to discuss what to do about Ash Wednesday on February 17. This day is very tactile if done the traditional way and involves a closeness to one another which we cannot do. We will look at a few options and decide on one or two.

I am excited because for the first real time, we have a path forward and a very strong possibility of returning to a type of worship and gathering we remember.

I personally have been praying that I may be eligible for the vaccine soon. Patty is set to receive her first shot in March unless an opportunity comes sooner. Both of my parents are eligible, but there are no centers near their home which have the vaccine. Even with all of this, there is hope. If you want to share that with us when you receive the vaccine, we can get an idea of what percentage of the congregation has been immunized. 

As a reminder, I will be “in class” all next week with an intensive class, so I will be on an education week break for the week.

Be love,
Pastor Johnson

January 4, 2021

Good day siblings in Christ!

I am sending this out on a Monday this week because Wednesday is Epiphany! To acknowledge the day, I will be doing a live 15 minute prayer, reading, and chat about the significance of the day at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 6. It will be presented on Zoom and on Facebook. If you are on Zoom, there can be some interaction and I will try to watch the feed on Facebook. Unlike a worship service, this will be a little chat and we can have some fun. The Zoom link is in my email to the congregation, or you may contact the church office and we will send it to you.

Be love,
Pastor Johnson

January 1, 2021

Happy New Year!

In a few weeks, the council and I will have a discussion about restarting limited in-person worship services. Sadly, Croton’s coronavirus numbers have been on the increase due to the holiday season and we just received word that the schools will be remote next week, so you may need to hang in there for a while yet. We continue to pray. I continue to hope you will stay safe during these days.

Update from the Social Ministry Committee

In addition to the quilts and kits we send annually to Lutheran World Relief, we also send them a monetary contribution. We recently received a thank you letter from LWR for our gift of $125. Typically, LWR uses cash gifts to help pay for clean water projects.

Before Christmas, a number of you contributed to the annual Christmas-at-Sea project of Seafarers International. We were able to assemble eight satchels containing gifts for seafarers who find themselves confined to ship in the port of New York during the holidays due to the pandemic. These are the people who bring us goods from all over the world. To learn more, read the article Championing for Seafarers, the “Invisible Essential Workers” on the Seafarers International website. And, yes, those satchels did get to the seafarers on time in early December.

Pastor Johnson

December 26, 2020

Dear members and friends of Our Saviour,

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a joy filled day. I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow’s worship is being presented by the Metro NY Synod staff and Bishop Egensteiner. It opens with a beautiful liturgical dance which runs approximately 11 minutes before the traditional worship service begins. The whole worship runs approximately 45 minutes.

Our service will only be on Facebook and YouTube. There will be no Zoom feed.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Justin Johnson