Bowing down

The Hellebore flowers grow with their heads bowed down; that is why I either move the flower or pick it to take a photo. There are a lot of flowers on this plant, I love it.

Today I went to church in person and stayed for the meeting. Our church community is going through a difficult transition. Originally we had excellent leadership and three seminary professors in our community, then we had a youth pastor who loved our kids and teenagers. Our community grew quickly to over 300 members.  For various very good reasons, each of them left and we ended with a pastor who was a poor match for us. Recently the community has had fewer than 15 people gathering each week. We had a balloon loan coming due in 2020 for our building which we knew we could not pay, so the building was sold right before the start of Covid; in hindsight, it was perfect timing. After four years our new pastor realized we are no longer a viable church so we are meeting to discern how to disband in a way that the proceeds from the sale of the building are used/given to a ministry we decide to support. The conversation was difficult but congenial, we love each other but grieve our loses...the people no longer with us.