Lent will start on Ash Wednesday, 6th March, and this is traditionally when churches offer a study course. This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, the great poem that we recite every communion service which explores what we and virtually all Christians have believed over those centuries. The Apostles Creed is a shorter version of this which we use at Morning Prayer. To celebrate this anniversary and also to understand more about the basis of our faith, this Lent the Highley and the Brown Clee benefices will work together to look at the creeds. We will follow a course developed some years ago entitled; Pilgrim: The Creeds Book 5 (Grow Stage) by Jane Williams, Paula Gooder, Stephen Cottrell, Steven Croft, Robert Atwell, Graham Tomlin, Martyn Snow, Mary Gregory - Paperback - 9780715144442 The cost is £4 from Church House Publishing, if anyone wishes to buy a copy of the book, although this is not necessary to follow the course.For those who wish to join an online group, we will meet on Wednesday evenings from 7-8pm by Zoom, starting on Wednesday 12th March; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3592851895?pwd=cksyL0t5TlhFUURRenpxMG9yQTVhUT09.Meeting ID: 359 285 1895 Password: 512607The courseAsh Wednesday, 6th March, In church - join us for our Ashing service.Week 1, beginning 10th March; What are the creeds?Week 2, beginning 17th March: God as TrinityWeek 3, beginning 24th March: Jesus, fully God and fully manWeek 4, beginning 31st March: Crucified, risen and ascendedWeek 5, beginning 7th April: The Holy SpiritWeek 6, beginning 14th April: One holy, catholic and apostolic church Maundy Thursday, 17th April, church service.
There has been much comment on the recent 5th anniversary of the Covid outbreak; lockdown and all that followed. I totally underestimated the severity of the disease when it first broke. I remember the shock at hearing of the first death of someone I knew; a distinguished scientist only a few years older than me. In our area, we escaped fairly lightly; I only did one Covid funeral. But I had a sharp reminder of how potentially dangerous the disease was when, many months into the outbreak when it was clearly being controlled, a parishioner lost a relative who was much younger than myself. I still find that shocking. So where was God? Living through the crisis was a sharp reminder that natural disasters happen; an unwelcome insight into the pain and bewilderment so many people have to face in what seem like far-away places. As I write, I think of Myanmar and Thailand. I am appalled at those who try and present these events as acts of punishment by a stern God. There are indeed places in the Bible where that view can be found, but Jesus seems to have rejected it. Crises like Covid pose problems for those who see God as a micromanager. The best I can do is to accept that if God choses to work through evolution by natural selection, it is inevitable that sometimes unpleasant viruses will appear. God sets up his rules, she must then work by them if we are truly to be free. But even in the depth of crisis God continues to work; the Holy Spirit will still move. In Covid, the self-help groups, the support that otherwise remote neighbours gave each other, the love that was shown, was all of God and from God, even if most people were not aware of it. Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est. Where there is charity and love, there God is.
