shotleyfieldsforever

I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for six months in 1985. Whilst there I was hired by a Church in Somerville to take Holy Communion to 'the shut ins' I was paid fifty dollars a trip, provided with a car and driver and picked up from and taken back home to my apartment. I wasn't too sure about the designation 'shut in' as most of the communicants were elderly people, unable to attend Church, but still valued as members of the church community, I wondered about a better choice of name. But I guess we're all 'shut ins' now? Self isolation is the preferred designation. Most of our isolation is voluntary and we remain indoors for a variety of reasons. Self preservation is probably at the top of most peoples list. But staying home, remaining shut in, self isolating can be seen as an 'act of love' especially if you are feeling symptomatic, a cough, a sore throat, a temperature. The latest headline I have seen identifies grocery stores a...

Well today we went out to buy bread and we found it. Not a lot, just a Lidl. We didn't buy wine because we have some but now we can break bread and spill wine around the table and supper will become a Eucharistic Feast even though the Church is shut. Which is in a way how my Anglican Ecclesiology works. We celebrate the inbreaking of God's goodness and love by sharing this fellowship meal. And after we gather to worship we leave the church to become servants of God's people the poor. And, if we can do that with a good heart and a good conscience in the middle of a pandemic which is racing through the world at a rate that is truly scary, then we can believe that this thing will pass. Somehow we have to take a measured view, we have to remain calm and in some sense figure out the end of the story whilst we are still at the beginning or more hopefully half way through. This is what Jesus did when he heard that his friend Lazarus had died. He didn't rush ...

So this Sunday we celebrate Mothering Sunday, NOT Mother's Day. Mothering Sunday is also known as Refreshment Sunday a day when we can take a short but welcome break from our Lenten Fasting, Mothering Sunday is a day for Simnel Cake, for young girls in service to be allowed home to visit their mothers and also historically for parishes to visit their Cathedral the Mother Church of the Diocese. Mother's Day is American by history and provenance: Mom and Apple Pie! My very first memory as a child was waking up in my cot, cold and feeling desperately unloved and wondering just how I had become separated during the night from my mothers arms. I grabbed the bars of the cot, stood up and looked across at the bed where I had fallen asleep to see a stranger lying there next to my mother. I was outraged, who was this person? It was, of course, my father newly demobilised and fresh home from his service in the Royal Airforce, it was 1946 and I was 18 months old. My father ...

Today the World Health Organisation declared Covid 19 (Coronavirus) to be a Pandemic. Not quite as mad as a plague of frogs but close I suspect. Last Sunday in Shotleyfields we used hand sanitisers, we didn't shake hands during the Peace and we received Communion in the form of the Host only. I held a dialogue with our safeguarding officer, also a GP, and began to understand the urgency that is being promoted about the Virus. There is it seems no conspiracy theory. It is the case that this Virus, unlike for example Influenza A is simply highly contagious and easier to catch. Nevertheless the simple precautions that contribute to public hygiene work well, so hand washing should be maintained and physical contact avoided where possible. This morning I awoke to discover a news bulletin telling me that a junior health minister had herself tested positive for the Virus and had recently attended a reception at 10 Downing Street. Mmmm ....... Her breezy message was keep...