It’s almost one of the cruellest things about the last two months that
we’ve had such a lovely spring! Looking out onto a bright blue sky, seeing the
freshness of all that is growing around us, feeling the warmth of the sun… Of
course, that is only if you can get out! For those who are able to take up the
daily permitted exercise during this time of lockdown - or who have a garden in
which they can sit - life is different but not as onerous as it might be. But
there are also people who live cooped up in multi-storey flats, or on city
streets without the easy access to parks and the countryside which most of us
here enjoy. There are people who need to be shielded, dependent on others for
shopping and the provision of care; families living on top of each other where
stress levels rise and the children need to be home-educated; the people we don’t
readily hear from in our Care Homes, so many of them bewildered by a situation which
they perhaps can’t grasped - and those who care for them there, daily putting
themselves and their families at risk from this unseen virus which can be so
easily unleashed.
So there’s a strange dissonance between the beauty of things around us
- but invisible forces pressing in on us. This isn’t only our own problem. However well or badly you think the
Government has handled things, at least we have resources which can be used for
provision, care and the nursing of the sick. In many poorer nations hunger,
lack of clean water and a general scarcity of health provision are factors already
stacked against their populations as they face the Coronavirus. It’s easy to
forget this. And while we are preoccupied with our own needs and fears, we can
easily miss the needs of the world’s poor.
As I write, it’s Christian Aid Week. Door-to-door collections
can’t take place. Events to support Christian Aid - amongst them our own - can’t
go ahead as planned. But please don’t forget its work. See page 12 of our parish magazine to learn more. Look online to see what Christian Aid is doing and
wants to do. Discover there and in the newspapers and the media how you can
give to support its work.
My best wishes…
From the special May issue of our Parish Magazine - find much more by following this link
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