Category: Coronavirus

Pastoral Update - Lockdown 2.0

2/11/2020

I’m sure you have all heard the news that we will be entering another period of lockdown from Thursday of this week. It will mean that places of worship will be closed, unless for funerals and individual prayer. Or for essential support services such as foodbanks or for some support groups.

So as before All Saints will remain open – for foodbank, for acts 435, and for funerals and for individual prayer.

I know that for many this period of lockdown will be more difficult than the last. For others it will feel like more of the same. Either way it will be tough. But I want to encourage you. This will pass. And in the meantime, I pray that we can each hold to three truths. The love, peace and victory of Christ.

There are many examples of people in the bible having to either self-isolate or forcibly isolate from others. And in all cases their strength came from their life in Christ, and their faith in God.

Paul writes in Romans 8:31-end that ‘nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus’. Not only is the letter itself a demonstration of how one copes with being separated from the community they love. Indeed, the very need to write a letter emphasises a longing to be closer. But Paul also draws comfort from the truth that Christ is with us and that his love will overcome anything that seeks to separate us. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.
The love, peace and victory of Christ will keep us.

After the death of Jesus, the disciples self-isolated out of fear and desire for self-preservation. John 20:19-29 shows how Jesus, raised from the dead, miraculously found a way into the locked room and then announced peace to them all. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, but also that nothing can separate us from the peace of Christ – not a lockdown room, not a locked down church, not a locked down country.
The love, peace and victory of Christ will keep us.

During his ministry Paul was under arrest for about five years. Although about two and a half years of this period is spent in a literal prison cell, the rest is spent either under house arrest or being escorted by a Roman soldier from Jerusalem to Rome. His second letter to the Thessalonians reminds the church in hiding there to seek every opportunity to give Christ the glory in what they do. He prays:
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The love, peace and victory of Christ will keep us.

My thoughts over the last week have turned to the people of Israel taken into captivity in Babylon about 600 years before Christ.
Many of us will know Psalm 137 – by the rivers of Babylon. The psalmist asks ‘How shall we sing the songs of the Lord in a strange land?’ With no temple. But then, word comes from the prophet Jeremiah who says, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Settle….; plant..; find your family…. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

And then we have those wonderful words of hope from Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29). And suddenly, a situation that seemed hopeless becomes hopeful as the people realise that their God has not left them at all, that he is very much with them in their struggle.

And this is my prayer, that we will all know that God is with us in this. This virus will pass - and God will remain.

In this time I will be praying that we remain united in our endeavour to suppress the virus, to stay safe – to follow all the relevant guidance from the Government. To be fervent in prayer, to be kind to ourselves, and kind to others.

Do keep in contact with one another, offering prayer and support as needed. These are times for us all to both give and receive. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need.

There are many church members just itching to drop off shopping, collect a prescription, etc. So please don’t be afraid to ask. Let us pray.
Lord God, you are always with us.
You are with us in the day and in the night.
You are with us when we are fearful and when we are fearful.
You are with us when we are healthy and when we are ill.
You are with us when we are peaceful and when we are worried.
Help us to remember that you love us and are with us in everything, and nothing can separate us from your love, peace and victory.
Amen.

Revd Jeremy Putnam

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The Acorn

26/3/2020

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The following article was written for the Threemilestone Contact Magazine.

One thing is for sure we won’t soon forget these last few weeks, and we won’t soon forget the next few weeks. Schools and colleges have closed and moved to online classes, the country faces the economic pressure of everyone having to stay at home, entire nations are entering into quarantine, the NHS is under severe and life threatening pressure, and the care sector is seriously struggling. Tragically, people are dying. We haven’t faced such a crisis since the second world war.

I find myself wondering “What next?”

One possible answer to this question would be to follow the trajectory of shock and sorrow to its appropriate conclusion, in other words to expect the worst and to prepare ourselves for the worst. And some might say this is a fitting response, since it will lead to acts of self-preservation and the protection of what we care for most and who we love most dearly. Obedience to the government guidance on staying at home, self-isolating and social distancing are expressions of this, and are absolutely the right course of action.

Another possible answer is to imagine an alternative trajectory that is not shaped by shock and sorrow, but by compassion and grace. This kind of answer takes seriously how the current experience shapes culture, community, and individual character. It looks for ways to flip the horror of a given situation into an opportunity to build something new. I’m talking here about growth, potential and progress. Consider the acorn for instance. The acorn is potentially an oak tree. It yearns to become what it is not yet but ought to be. We are no different. Out of the Winter comes the Spring. What will the Spring look like for Threemilestone when all this is over?

Both answers are correct. But for me the overriding narrative in Threemilestone and the surrounding area is one shaped by grace, compassion and good will. It is a narrative that imagines what we might become when we all get through this. It is a narrative that tells the story of a community that cares for the whole, lives for the whole and defends the whole. Just take a look at what is being achieved through the local volunteer initiatives coordinated by Russell Keeble at Threemilestone Methodist Church and Cllr Tudor. And take a look at the small acts of kindness being offered between neighbours. It is evident that social distancing was never going to mean social indifference, and self-isolation was never going to mean self-interest. These kind of things are proof that good work for the sake of the whole does far more than it initially intends – picking up a prescription for someone when you do your essential trip to the supermarket helps one person, but it also shapes the whole community. It gives more water to the acorn!

Further down the road in Highertown, Malabar and Penn an Dre things are the same. Malabar Residence Association are coordinating volunteers with a system to stay in touch with the most vulnerable, and here at All Saints Highertown we’re running a Community Comforter scheme to do the same. More water for the acorn!

I call to mind the words of St Paul who reminded the early persecuted church that nothing can separate us from the love of God. He says, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If St Paul were writing today, he may well have even included Covid19 in his list. The point is this, the reality of our situation is horrendous and understandably frightening for many. But my prayer, my faith, my hope is that the narrative of love and compassion will suppress the fear we all feel, and comfort the mourning to such an extent that we see the oak fully grown, and our community life profoundly changed for the better.

The work of the Church is more important than ever, to be Christ to others, to heal the sick, mend the shattered, befriend the lonely, lift up the poor, and liberate the captive. God’s love for us draws us into participating in that divine work with our own hands and feet. God’s love for us—and our love for God—expresses itself in love of neighbour. May we all give ourselves to this service.

Yours in Jesus
Revd Jeremy Putnam
Priest in Charge at All Saints Highertown

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Pastoral Update - Lockdown 2.0

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