COVID Rears its Ugly Head

I can hear in my head the theme music for the movie Jaws:  duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun…

Well, I can confirm that it is not necessarily safe to go into – well in this case not the water – but places where people gather – like churches – if you let your guard down about the reality of COVID.  I can hear the murmurs – COVID?! – that’s no longer a thing, is it?  After all, we have the vaccine for COVID and there are no reports in media or government press releases about COVID outbreaks, are there?

Well, let me assure you, or perhaps scare you, that COVID still is with us.  My wife Lorna came down with COVID after contact with someone – not quite sure who – in our church a week ago.  You know, church is where two or three or more are gathered in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Well, that’s just it, we are called as Christians to gather together.  That means if someone has symptoms of COVID and joins the gathering anyway or perhaps has no symptoms – they will likely infect others.  Our collective memories of COVID and the pandemic and all that we had to do, such as masking and hand washing and getting vaccinated have faded as time has passed.

Lorna came down with symptoms much like those of a cold – sniffles, cough, fever, and feeling lousy etc.  Due to unrelenting brain fog (her words), she suspected that it was more than a cold and dug out an old COVID test kit and, sure enough, the two lines appeared showing she tested positive for COVID – not a good thing in this case where you want to see a negative result. 

Now Lorna and I are fully up to date on our vaccinations.  Being vaccinated does not make you immune but will just lessen the severity of the symptoms.  I am symptom-free at this point and may have escaped.  Perhaps as result of being a special person; actually, just a matter of good luck.  However, that doesn’t mean I am free of COVID and have been lying low until I get a test kit and check it out.  These are not as readily available as they were at the height of the pandemic. 

There is also conflicting information online at government websites.  One site I checked said that if you are symptom-free you don’t have to isolate, but others say you should isolate if you are in contact with an infected person. 

We both stayed home from church last Sunday.  We have heard of a number of people with symptoms who have tested positive or suspect they have COVID - there may be more who are infectious but don’t know they are.  Our church – like many – has a demographic that skews to the older age – so they are in the vulnerable category, as Lorna and I are, and may be susceptible to symptoms that are more serious.  I believe it is a good idea that organizations where people congregate have policies that reinforce the necessity for people to stay home if they have symptoms that could mean they are infectious.  Also reinforcing rules around hand-sanitizing and providing hand sanitizing gel are good ideas.  We must not let our collective and individual guards down. 

Remember, the water may look safe – but who knows what lurks beneath the surface.  Blessings indeed. 

Whither Anglicanism Part 2

Last time, I reflected on a report by a Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada which was addressing what changes may be required in the structural organization of the Church given the declining membership.  Although I agree that this is necessary, it is not sufficient.  As I stated, I believe what must be faced and addressed is what it means to be an Anglican in the world today.  As the old generation of Anglicans – the one I am part of - dies and few members of generation x, y and z and beyond are apparently not interested in being part of a church – what is the future of the Anglican Church and what will that church look like?

The decline in membership has been ongoing since the 1960’s and various attempts in changing the liturgy and developing strategic plans have failed to reverse or even arrest this decline.  There are many reasons for this, and this situation is not unique to the Anglican Church.  It has often been something of gallows humor within the Church that ‘we don’t change – we’re Anglicans’.  Again, we are not unique in this as people generally don’t embrace change – especially as we become long in the tooth and soft in the middle as Paul Simon sings.  However, in life – particularly this post-modern life – change does seem to be inevitable at an ever-increasing rate.  I believe that God does intend humans to evolve, and we have and continue to do that.  One of the daily missives from the Society of St, John the Evangelist this week addressed just this:

Evolution - We are not card-carrying members of an institution called the Church. We are organs within a living organism, the mystical Body of Christ, an organism that evolves in response to the patterns of every successive age. Each moment we see, turn back, praise loudly, prostrate and thank, we grow in our capacity to mirror the faithfulness of God and make the evolution of the Body manifest. Br. Keith Nelson, SSJE

So, the question that we are faced with is, what does the Anglican Church do and how does it need to change if it is to survive?  What we are doing now is not working.  For Anglicans, what has been central to being an Anglican is worship.  We are called, as are all Christians, to gather together in the name of Jesus Christ and worship God.  The liturgy that we follow to do that has changed at various times over the history of the Anglican Church.  When I started to worship regularly as an Anglican in the late 1980’s , the Canadian Church had introduced a new prayer book – the Book of Alternative Services (BAS).  In effect, it replaced the 1962 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) as the primary form of liturgy.  There was much angst and anguish among many Anglicans as the BAS was put into practice and the BCP slowly faded into the fringes of worship.    The BAS was introduced, I believe, to modernize the language and make the liturgy more user friendly.  Whether this has been a good thing theologically, can be and is still debated.  However, the point here is that this has not seemed to have made a difference in the ongoing decline in membership.

The recent COVID pandemic gave Anglicans and other mainline churches an opportunity to dabble in non-face to face worship through electronic media.  This is proposed as possibly being the wave of the future for worship and the answer to address the decline.  This media has had a long history in modern worship starting with radio and moving to TV evangelism and now electronic media.  What has been apparent, in my assessment, is that if you are going to do this, it needs to be well done.  This was not the case in many examples of Anglican worship.   So, can electronic worship replace in-person worship and is that the answer to the decline in church membership?  If it is, we Anglicans will have to take a cash course in how to use it effectively and be serious about doing it well.

The need for gathering together in-person in work settings is being played out in post-pandemic Canada and probably elsewhere.  Working remotely became necessary and, therefore, acceptable during the pandemic.  However, now the need to gather together in the name of the organization is being asserted and calling the troops back to the office is being asserted.  The realization that young workers are not engaging with co-workers and the company structure has management raising a red flag about the lack of cohesion of these employees.  This was noted in a recent article about baby boomers not retiring and blocking younger employees from advancing in the organization, “In fact, the engagement of young workers may have declined because the work-from-home shift has had a negative impact on their careers in particular… Physical distance can become mental distance if it’s not managed right.”  Of course, in the church we are not dealing with careers in general.  However, I think that the experience of less engagement in remote circumstances is applicable to the church environment.  Worship in remote settings can fill a need for certain people in certain circumstances and should not be discounted.  However, the basis for community is gathering in person. 

As I stated last time, I believe that the experience of the divine i.e. the Holy - is what will engage people and keep them as part of the church community.  This will occur in worship if it is well done in the community of Christians gathered in the name of Jesus Christ.  It can also occur when people gather for other activities such as bible study, fellowship, and bake sales.  Gathering together is essential for the church to be a church.  How to gather together is for all of us to figure out.   

May you be blessed to experience the Divine in worship and in all your life.

 

 

Love God or Else

 I want to open with a quote from Lorna Harris – someone with whom I share my life every day:

I completely sympathize with those who are done with Covid. I am done with winter. It’s been miserably cold here for days. And it is freezing cold like this every single year. I ‘m not able to go out. Well, I can go out, but I have to put on my winter coat, a scarf and hat, my winter boots, maybe long johns and/or snow pants and of course mittens. This is just too much. I have a right to my freedom from winter. I am going out today and wear just a T-shirt and shorts. It's my personal choice. Winter doesn’t exist for me. And no one gets to order me around on this issue, but if I get frost-bite or pneumonia, I do expect, as my right, the best in medical care.

This was a comment that Lorna made on a Globe and Mail on-line article which talked about people who had, “had enough of COVID.”  Lorna was worried that people would take what she said literally and not as a satirical comment on this laissez faire attitude to COVID restrictions.   These people just want to get back to a life without restrictions such as wearing masks, or showing proof of vaccination status or whatever.  Lorna skewered that reasoning – if you can call it that – beautifully by showing how illogical that way of thinking is.  Just because we are tired of all the restrictions and constraints on our day to day lives, it doesn’t change the situation we are in.  To put it another way, “COVID doesn’t care.”

I must admit that I find that I have very little patience for people who take that attitude.  On the one hand, I can understand that people want to get their lives back and to be able to live without these constraints and restrictions.  Many people have been affected by the COVID pandemic rules to a much greater extent than I have been.  Indeed, as a strong introvert there are aspects of staying in my small corner that I enjoy.  I do not have young children that are being home-schooled at times.  I don’t know how I would cope with that.  I am retired so I haven’t had to deal with COVID restrictions at work.  So, on reflection I can sympathize with people who are completely fed up with the restrictions.

However, this desire to escape regardless of the impact on others and society in general are what I see as dangerous indications of what is becoming a much more prevalent attitude in our culture today – me first and foremost and to hell with others.     It is one that goes completely against the great commandment of Jesus Christ, to love your neighbour – or to give it in full:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.

The challenge for this commandment – and it is definitely a challenge – is that it seems easier to hate than to love.  It seems natural for us to hate the Other – whoever is different from us and whom we see as a threat to our way of living.  I can only say that as a Christian, I am called to follow that Great Commandment and love not hate. 

In closing, I will turn to my go-to guy in song, the saint of song, Leonard Cohen:

Let's talk of love not hate,  things to do: it’s getting late, there’s so little time and  we’re only passing through.  

Let us be blessed to talk of love on our journey.  

A Psalm for Holy Week

I recently attended a workshop – on Zoom of course – with the well-known composer of hymns and worship leader, John Bell.  The workshop was through the auspices of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine in Toronto.   This workshop was not about hymns, not directly in any case―it was on the psalms.  Even though I would have enjoyed an exploration of some of John Bell’s many hymns, it was in no way a disappointment.  The journey of exploration of the psalm on which John took us was wonderful and gave me an appreciation of the psalm I hadn’t known previously.

As an aside, John started the workshop by apologizing for his somewhat shaggy appearance and noted that he was overdue for a haircut due to COVID restrictions in his home in Scotland.  This rather small point seemed to truly bring home to me how daily life has been disrupted by the pandemic in many countries in small ways as well as the very large ways which we know first hand.

One of the explorations of the psalms which particularly engaged me was on what is probably the best-known psalm – the 23^rd – you know, the one that begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  John noted that this psalm is a favourite for weddings and funerals.  I can attest that it is certainly a go-to psalm for funerals from my experience presiding at many funerals.  However, what I didn’t know was that this psalm was often used during Holy Week which Christians are marking this week.  Holy Week is the time between Palm Sunday when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the waving of palm branches and shouts of ‘hosannah’, and the events that are celebrated on Easter with the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

John noted that Holy Week is the fulfillment of the 23^rd psalm.  Here it is in full from the King James Version:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

We have Jesus who proclaimed himself as the Good Shepherd in one of the ‘I am’ statements in the Gospel of John.  The passage gives a pastoral image of green pastures and still water that care of the sheep by the Good Shepherd who searches for the lost sheep in the parable of Jesus.  Jesus walked through the valley of death in the Garden of Gethsemane and did not fear the evil of the cross. 

The preparation of the table reminds us of the Last Supper which he shared with his disciples in the presence of Judas who betrayed him.  The anointing of his head with oil was fulfilled by the unnamed woman who anointed his head with costly nard to the objection of Judas who believed that this was an extravagant waste and the ointment should have been sold and the money spent of the poor. 

Goodness and mercy did follow him throughout his life through his care and healing of others.  On the cross Jesus assures the robber crucified with him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”   

For those of you who are on the journey with Jesus this Holy Week may you have the blessing of the 23^rd psalm as your companion. 

A COVID-19 Road Less Travelled

 

Last week, Lorna and I were travelling to our cottage in Price Edward Island.  I took the week off from this venue and focussed on preparing for the trip and leaving our home in Ontario.  

It was a journey which we had done many times before but it was also a new experience.  We have come to our cottage ever since I retire officially as a parish priest.  Until this year we have left at around the end of May and returned around Thanksgiving.  This year there was the road block on this journey because of the Corona Pandemic with prohibitions on travel.  It didn’t look as if we would be making the trip this year being in good company with everyone who had their summer plans disrupted and put on hold. 

We were resigned to staying put at home but as summer and the pandemic progressed, a window opened up and the possibility of making the trip seemed that it might be possible.  As plans developed, it was clear that it would not be a trip like ones we would normally make.  There were permissions to obtain, plans on how to handle meals and where to stay that would be safe.  Most of this planning was handled by Lorna - well okay, all of it was, except for the Air B&B reservation which is another story.  We managed it thanks to a friend who lent us a Koolatron, for our fresh food during the journey, a neighbour who is handling the mail and a friend who is grocery shopping for us during our 14 day quarantine at the cottage. 

With preparations made and many questions about how to handle washroom breaks and the need to sanitize at every stop, we made the trip without incident - passing all the border checks with flying colours, and are ensconced in the cottage and enjoying the peace and quiet of the quarantine.   

As many of you are aware, I consider life to be a journey which with God’s guidance will take us to a union with the divine when it is completed on this world.  It is a journey which is made up of many smaller journeys.  This was brought home to me as we made the journey to our cottage.  Travelling in a new way or to a new place is easy to understand as a journey.  However, staying where you are is also a journey.  They are all part of the journey of this life and all the journeys we have will bring us events which, however, much we plan for may bring us surprizes and the unexpected.  It is how we meet them that can tell us much about how we respond to the unplanned and unexpected and where God is in our lives.  I came across a short passage in a book I picked off the shelf at home which I obtained some time a go but had neglected read.  It is Christian Mythmakers by Rolland Hein. The book explores Christian writers who have added to the Christian Mythos.  The quote is about the mythmaker John Bunyan relating to his classic Pilgrims Progress:

The reader is seized with a compelling sense of life as a journey beset with perils and difficulties, trials and demanding earnest effort to overcome. To triumph over them brings the promise of a glorious afterlife.

My journey so far has been much more than that but perhaps Bunyan’s journey reflected that understanding.  I hope that the best is yet to come in this world and definitely in the next. There will undoubtedly be perils and challenges but there will be much more than that and above all that it will be a blessing.

Blessing on your journey.