Saturday, July 18, 2020

Opening for Worship


Looking at all that empty sacred space has been difficult. I wasn’t called to sit in front of a screen or to become a televangelist. Moving worship services to online only for the past months has been a steep learning curve, though Martin and our team have done a phenomenal job in making those services as accessible and engaging as possible and this will continue until the end of August at least

I just can’t wait to worship again with others in church and I believe that’s true for every priest I know. We were called to minister with people. We love the interaction that happens in the service and experience God in the midst of us as we pray. We look forward to the moments when we lift the bread and cup of Holy Communion, when we dip our hands into the baptismal font to draw a young child or a new believer into the Christian faith, and when we greet people at the door.

But we need to tread carefully. “Fools rush in…”. We have followed the guidelines as we have opened for private prayer and now move tentatively forward as we have a short, said service of Evening Prayer tomorrow at 3.30pm. 

 


The lovely clean but empty building of All Saints awaits us and I look forward to the day when we can all meet again but in the meantime, while the building may be mainly closed, the life of the church is not. The Holy Spirit is still at work among our scattered church as much as when we are gathered. Let us continue to pray together for relief from the pandemic, but let’s also pray that God would use this time and use us to grow deeper in our love for him, in our love for one another, and in love for our neighbours.


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