The challenge of coronavirus

We are living through an enormously challenging time with the coronavirus pandemic crisis.  It has touched every aspect of our lives.  It has reshaped our world and will continue to do so.

Our churches and chaplaincies responded magnificently to the immediate challenges by providing fine examples of online worship and setting up care systems both for congregations and the wider community. 

In our hospitals and prisons chaplaincy teams have provided enormous support for many vulnerable people in very difficult circumstances.  I am profoundly grateful for all that has been done in these past few weeks.

As we move through the crisis it also gives us an opportunity to think deeply about what really matters in life and faith. 

There is renewed interest in all kinds of spirituality and the numbers linking into online worship have been substantial. 

There is a new appreciation of our interconnectedness and its importance, and also of our place in nature and our care for our environment. 

There is a closer focus on how the most vulnerable in our society are cared for, and new thinking about the inequalities of our world. 

The place of science and questions of truth and reliable information have suddenly become centre-stage. 

Many people asking what kind of a world we want to emerge from this time of crisis and how can we shape it for the better.

At the end of June several people were due to be ordained either deacon or priest in the Church.  The crisis has meant a delay for that service. 

Those who are ordained reminded of their role to “proclaim the Gospel afresh in each generation”.  This phrase sums up succinctly the given-ness of the Christian gospel as outlined in our Scriptures and Creeds, but also reminds us of the constant task of relating this to every generation and place.

The changes we are going through now are arguably moving us into a different world, a different generation.

I do not think the current crisis changes in any way the heart of the Christian faith that God’s self-giving and transforming love made known in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ brings hope in every situation, and that God empowers us to be shaped and to live by that way of love through the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Nor does the crisis change the central role and purpose of the Church to live out and proclaim that way of love in our world through worship and prayer, teaching and preaching and evangelism, and lives of loving action.

However, it will be vital in the weeks and months and even years ahead that we reflect deeply on how the Church is to proclaim the Gospel in our changed world. 

Many are talking of recovery or resetting our world.  I prefer language which speaks of re-imagining how we might be.  TEAR fund have produced a very useful resource entitled The world rebooted  This is just one tool amongst many that are emerging which encourage the whole Church in dialogue with others to start a conversation about the things that really matter in our emerging world.  It closes with quote from the Archbishop of Canterbury:

“We cannot be content to go back to what was before . . . There needs to be a resurrection of our common life”.

Just before the start of June was Pentecost Sunday.  It reminds us of the primacy of the Holy Spirit in mission.  We are called to participate in God’s mission of saving love. 

Let us pray for the power, and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we seek to be God’s Church in our rapidly changing world.