Service following the Stourbridge wildfires
Bishop Martin will host a special service at St Thomas’ Church in Stourbridge on Sunday 18 October following the devastating…
Another lockdown
Here we go again! That maybe what you’re feeling at the moment following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Saturday evening. Another month’s lockdown is so depressing. The worst thing is,…
Here we go again! That maybe what you’re feeling at the moment following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Saturday evening.
Another month’s lockdown is so depressing. The worst thing is, we just don’t know when or how this will all end – despite talk of a vaccine. Meanwhile, the economy is taking a terrible dive and so many people are suffering very badly. It’s not just Coronavirus, it’s mental health: attempted suicides have risen alarmingly,
Under the new restrictions we shall be obliged to close churches again except for funerals, for broadcast worship and for individual prayer. It’s very disappointing but we have no choice but to accept it. I just hope that the collective measures being imposed will have the desired effect.
It’s worth remembering that, even if church buildings are closed for public worship, many of our churches are offering ‘church at home’ and there is a rich offering of online services available, whether or not we are able to gather in church. If you haven’t experienced it before, online church can be a great way to try church without having to turn up in person. For those without access to the internet there is broadcast worship available and also a dedicated Church of England phone line for support.
Despite all that, many of us will be feeling very despondent. How do we cope with that? Well, I was once told that King Solomon employed a person to be always at his side to say, whenever anything happened, good or bad, ‘This too will pass.’ I’m sure it’s just legend but the idea is not a bad one. This crisis will pass. Let’s remind ourselves of that.
What will not pass is God’s love. That love stretches out into all eternity and it embraces you and me if we will let it. As St Paul put it, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is the Christian hope and we need it now more than ever.
Bishop John
