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Although we don't yet know when we can meet together again as normal in our buildings, we can ponder and potentially share what is giving us comfort and providing us with inspiration. Potential ideas are: reflections of what lockdown is like and how you are spending your time, learning a piece of music, learning poetry to recite, creating art to exhibit, or an idea of your own. Feel free to send in any ideas to us.
Shirin Ward came across this poem by Elizabeth Jennings (1926–2001), which she feels sums up our thoughts of lockdowns, past and present:
Over and over we cry, alone or together.
And we weep for a lot we scarcely understand, wondering why we are here and what we mean...
And why there are huge stars and volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, desperate disasters of many kinds...
What is the answer? Is there one?
There are many: Most of us forget the times when the going sun was a blaze of gold;
And the blue hung behind it and we were full of awe.
We forget the moments of love and cast out time; And the children who come to us, trusting the answers we give to their difficult and important questions!
And there are shooting stars and rainbows and broad blue seas...
Surely when we gather the good about us,
The dark is cancelled out.
Mysteries must be our way of life.
Without them we might stop trying to learn and hoping to succeed
In the work we half choose
and giving the love we need.
Evelyn Wilson sends us some ideas culled from a set of articles in recent issues of The Guardian:
b. Take a few minutes of quiet meditation every morning.
c. Look for ways to help others.
Do one thing at a time. Try and group linked 'to does'.• Raise your heart rate – with a challenge.Campaign for something – actively.
• Be a bit outrageous or silly.
• Don't fear failure.
• Reach out to others.
• Make a difference.
Get better at feeling sad. It can be a route to happiness and make you pay more attention to detail.
Generosity makes us more grateful.
Mardelle Jordan brings words of comfort in troubled times:
We have a refuge, we have a comforter, we have hope. When all around us souls give way, God has promised to be our hope, our help, our refuge.
So we can hold fast to His promise, to be with us always, even to the end of our own days.
Martin Lyons reflects on the service for Trinity Sunday:
First off you think how inviting, how nice to see the doors wide open. This brings hope; then you see the locked doors into the church body itself, which leaves you feeling shut out. Close, but so far to go before we can actually all get back through those doors.
What changes will we have to make to allow us to get back through those inner doors? It makes you realise the enormity of the task ahead.
It reminds you that the old way we did things may be gone for a long time if not for ever. Therefore it reminds us of how much we must all be willing to not only embrace change but to accept it. This for some may be a very hard rocky bumpy road to walk. Therefore we will all need to be sensitive to people's feelings as for some it will be a form of grieving; for others it will be joyous as we at first take small tentative steps along this new road; later, with God's grace, giant leaps into the future.
From all the counselling I have received I know that we cannot change the past; it has gone. However we can influence the future. Our path and destiny are in our own hands, to mould the church for generations to come.
Wow! What responsibility rests on all our shoulders!
But I believe with God's grace, help and faith in him we can get there.
Mary Chibnall has sent in these beautiful photographs celebrating God's creation; she writes: 'Taking walks during lockdown has made me look more closely at the beauty of the flowers in the gardens that I walk past, and it's given me time to take photographs of them'. (Click on a small picture to enlarge it.)
While staying isolated, Alice Thacker and Bruce Goatly have been recording and filming contributions to songs for Songs on Wheels to release online for residents of the care homes, day centres and clubs that the group would normally be visiting. Just because the group can't go in person doesn't mean they can't be there in spirit! Bruce has also been learning new skills for mixing about 15 separate voice recordings and editing the videos together. A couple of examples are below; there are more on YouTube.
Nick Mayhew-Smith has written a blog about hermit spirituality, aiming to show how spirituality can be expressed during a time of intense social isolation.
