Greetings to you all in these very strange times.
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How are you all doing? Someone on Facebook said ‘This is the Lentiest Lent I have ever Lented’. I have to agree. Giving up chocolate is pretty small beans compared to giving up being able to buy groceries, giving up walks around the estuary or the park, giving up…oh my… meeting friends for coffee.
I thought it might be nice to ‘gather’ for our last Lenten service via an email. And if you really want to see me in person here is a YouTube link. Thank you so much to the Cathedral for hosting our Ash Wednesday service with the fabulous music, meaningful liturgy and just the fact of gathering together in the fullness of our humanity. Thank you to St Patrick’s, Westshore and Trinity for their hospitality and reflection on our theme of ‘they showed them unusual kindness’. Special thanks to St Patrick’s for their neighbourliness in providing a place for Trinity during their renovations. Several people said of Rev Lynne Frith’s commissioning -‘Isn’t it great that we are gathering in a Catholic Church, with a Presbyterian preacher for the commissioning of a Methodist Presbyter.’ Truly, we are the Body of Christ. |
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Our theme, ‘and they showed them unusual kindness’ has become part of our national vocabulary – maybe even global vocabulary – ‘Be Kind’. I would like to focus for a moment on one word in our theme :’unusual’. These are most unusual times. Many of the usual ways we show kindness are not available to us, so we are invited into unusual spaces – Zoom Rooms, YouTube videos, emails, more phone calls than usual.
Our kindness is unusual in that it involves staying away from people, protecting them – and us – from the spread of COVID 19. Our kindness is unusual in that many of your clergy and lay leaders will be struggling to find and learn new ways of connecting. Many of them will be struggling to recognise when they have done ‘enough’. Your kindness and patience is so appreciated. Our kindness will need to be unusual in that in the times we most need to gather – at times of birth, death, marriage, even birthdays, our gatherings will be virtual. But I feel sure that when Jesus said ‘Where two are three are gathered together in my name, there am I with them’ he would have included virtual gatherings if he had known about them! I hope that during this time you will experience, or have already, experienced acts of ‘unusual kindness’. Perhaps you would like to share them with this virtual community. In our prayers, may we be especially aware of those who are not connected through the wonders of technology. Those who have no homes, no phones, no car to reach those ‘essential’ services. May we be especially aware of those who are separated from loved ones in rest homes or hospitals. This will be a strange Holy Week. May we find ways of journeying with Jesus to the Cross and, in time, to his astounding resurrection. |
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Let us pray: this prayer is from the community of Corrymeela
God of pan–demos, God of all–people,
how odd that it takes a global disease
to show us that we are all one:
one species, one family
one genomic form,
one people dependent on you.
There are some among us
acutely at risk
to an invisible, indiscriminate foe.
We join in prayer for them and us,
that in our shared vulnerability
you would cure us of this sickness.
And the other one,
the one that divides us,
so that in healing we might become whole.
Amen.
With every blessing
Sally