Walk in Love: The Offertory

What are options that we can share to take the next step in the ritual of the Offertory to bring our humanity to stewardship,a challenging and changing expression of our relationship to God?

Our Stewardship Committee is encouraging online giving through a QR code that is on our website and in our Sunday bulletin. This is easier for the accounting warden to keep more accurate records as well as other practical reasons to collect pledges.

But still,the ushers go throughout the congregation passing the brass plates for parishioners’ donations. Fewer and fewer people put their envelopes in the plates as they are moving towards donating online.

Something is lost here. An empty plate,subtly ignored by many is carried by members of the congregation awkwardly through the congregation. What was an actual way of placing one’s gift – oneself– in a collective contribution no longer means the same thing.Our treasures being taken up to the altar and being acknowledged was a moment of God’s blessing. The plates were closely followed by the most important gift of all, bread and wine becoming Christ’s body and blood. This is a walk of love!

Maybe something is missing in our service. Giving online is a private action. It does not involve your very self in the worship. We used to fumble for our envelope or search for that dollar to put in your child’s eager hand. The online transaction now is between you, your phone, and your bank and this has replaced a sense of collective and humanly-felt giving.

The human emotions that are engaged on Sunday morning as we rush at home to find the checkbook or nod our head sheepishly at the passing plate saying “not today” and all the other human manifestations of our incarnation are lost in the QR code.

— Phoebe Griswold is the Stewardship Chair at St. Luke’s in Germantown,Pennsylvania and has been leading people in the walk of love for many decades.

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