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Dear Recipients of this epistle

Lockdown Mornings begin early for me. By 5:30 I am usually out walking, camera at the ready either my phone or a rather larger camera slung over my shoulder pretty-well whatever the weather.  I have been known to set out in full waterproofs and an umbrella.   I really  find the sitting in a chair to meditate, muse and prayer in the classic manner with palms on my knees, my back straight and feet flat on the floor, an awful torture…… but walking in the rain for an hour- now that is a comparative pleasure and, for me, far more efficacious. 

So I am always back in time for a leisurely breakfast when I can read the headlines, the Guardian cartoons and the latest nonsense on social media. Occasionally there is a snippet of gold – or if not gold then something that makes me laugh- here’s an example of each to get you thinking……

The Prayer List

Nobody has told me of anyone who needs to be on the prayer list or anyone who needs an update. 

So please pray for the folks I have heard from recently: 

Garth

Lesley 

Alli

 

 

Simon Cade

12 hrs

When power shifts, some of the symbols of the old order are removed, some are transformed and adopted, some are ignored and wither away, and some simply continue. It may be that power is shifting in the UK and US now, it is quite likely; apart from anything else times of plague are often associated with wider shifts in power.

When the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussain fell in 2003 so did some of the symbols associated with the regime, as US and other forces took power they didn’t insist on restoring the statues for reasons of historical authenticity, just as when Stanley was retaken from the Argentine forces in 1982 we didn’t insist that the newly installed portraits of General Galtieri had to remain.

Power is not just about who the leader is. A shift in power doesn’t need an election or a revolution or an invasion, it can come from ideas.
It seems to me that there are some important questions about power in the UK today, they are more important than questions about street furniture.

Is power shifting now? What are the ideas behind it? Does power need to shift? And whether the answers are yes, or no, or maybe, where is the Good News to be found? What is God up to? And if this isn’t about a revolution or even an election, what are the ideas that are important?

It is much easier to talk about statues. I can be for or against, and it makes for a simple picture. As a Christian the much harder conversation is about how I love my neighbour when they are so angry or hard to love, how do I honour the people I disagree with, how do I put others before myself. Most important of all, how do I listen for the still small voice of God’s love in a noisy and contradictory world

Please do visit the St Andrews virtual arts festival for 2020 at https://redruthchurch.org.uk/st-andrews-arts-festival/   there are some wonderful and extraordinary things to see, I have some particular favourites- but I am not saying what…. You will have to guess.   If you would like to contribute to the festival there is still time- I am putting up new items each day. Just reply to this email and attach your pictures, movie etc.

Then I fire up ZOOM for Morning Prayer at nine a.m. although I begin the meeting at 8:30 so people can chat. It has been a lifeline for several people living on their own! You are all welcome to join us- especially on Mondays which is my designated day to lead it.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82349419057?pwd=cUhRMTB0elF0YVdxVEovZWpQZjc2Zz09

Solomon’s Portico. (Where the believers met!)   Mondays 9:30 to Noon (drop in whenever you want and leave whenever you need to)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/906586752?pwd=SFdsOGZNOEFiMWxMUGFNRlpYK0ZRUT09

 Up to now has been completely fluid and flexible in terms of discussion but after consulting with the regular attenders we are going to set aside the hour from 10 till 11 for a different topic each week.

 

This week’s topics will include “The reader service” (assuming it happens)  

  • What should it look like?
  • Should there be more than one licensing service?
  • Licensing in home church?
  • Should “permission to officiate” be done away with altogether as Readers will be relicensed every 5 anyway

And…

The Church after lockdown……..

 

Penalty words: nothing is actually banned from conversation but there could be a fine of £1, to be paid to a charity of the culprit’s choice for each and every mention of the suggested words of the day …… (what words would you banish? J )

 

 

Last week Kathy6 mentioned this fantastic artist – worth looking at his instagram contributions…

 

The next link is a really good little video for setting up ZOOM for music

Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel – The Piano Guys

Suggested by David Fieldsend

My webpage

Judith's parish is in transition at this time so like many readers she is reaching out to her people.

This Sunday 7th June, is Trinity Sunday.  There are many analogies and ways of thinking about what it means, but I like this one,

Tertullian, one of the theologians of the early church, explained the Trinity in a metaphor. God the Father he described as “a deep root, Jesus the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as that which spreads beauty and fragrance.”

As a gardener, this makes sense to me, although as a chocolate eater I do like the Mars bar analogy too.  There is the nougat the base of this yummy confectionery, representing God the Father.  Probably the first part laid down in the making of it. Then there is the caramel, nicely positioned on top, separate yet part of it, this is Jesus, the Son. And then there is the chocolate coating surrounding it all, the Holy Spirit. A student once said to me so the Trinity is a Mars Bar Miss, I think they missed the point! It is of course a way of trying to explain the connection between the three persons of the Trinity.

An analogy for the spirit is sometimes described as the love which binds people together. You cannot see it but you know for certain that it is there.  The spirit binds us together in love.

However we look at the Trinity, it seems to me to be about relationships.  We are all connected with each other and God in lots of ways.  To remove ourselves from all forms of relationship is I think almost impossible.  To interact with others for good or bad is part of being human, and not just other humans but also nature and our planet.  To have a relationship with God would seem natural and for God to have a relationship with us.  Through the Trinity we can begin to see that each part leads to the other in a connected whole.  The Son leads us to the Father and the Spirit; the Father leads us to listen to the Son and the Spirit; and the Spirit leads us to the Son and the Father.  God’s nature is relationship. Life is relationship.  It is through relationship that God is revealed to us and through relationship that we respond to God

Blessings to you all Judith

Judith Ayres

A link to the whole of Judith’s letter.

From Lament to Hope


Joel is one of the Old Testament prophets, who struggled with God at a time of both a huge locust swarm, and a severe drought. Although such disasters in the bible are often understood as analogies, standing for ‘invasions of foreign armies’, or ‘unjust leaders exploiting the people of Israel’, it seems that these locusts, and this drought, were real disasters that happened in Joel’s time.
We too live at a time of conjunction of disasters. Climate change is real; the science is well understood, though a few powerful people are still focusing on their own personal desire to make maximum short term profit, even if it brings the point of crisis closer. The Corona Virus Disease, Covid 19, is real; it is causing many deaths, there is no vaccine, and we are not yet testing enough people to be able to track and trace who is catching it. Even the end of this year, making real our exit from the European Union, which will cause significant change, in a way that many people feel that we are not yet well prepared for, feels to some like another disaster on its way.


What we can get from prophets like Joel is an assurance that the people of God have faced difficult times. Lament is an appropriate response. Tell God how you feel as Joel did: “Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors? 3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. Joel 1:2-4


What to do? 

We start with the lament:


5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep
8 Lament like a young woman dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth
11 Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vine-dressers
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God. Joel 1:5,8,11,13


Joel spoke the name of the disasters falling on God’s people in his time. It is important that we try to speak the name of the difficulty we are living through.
People are dying because of the Corona Virus, in our hospitals, in our care homes, in our community. We pray for all who are affected: suffering, nursing, and caring for them. The climate is changing, and those who have done least to cause those changes, the poorest communities around the world, are those who are already suffering most, and we pray for them. If we name our challenges, if we bring them before God in lament, then we can have faith that God is with us, and have hope that God is bringing healing to our situations. This is the context for Joel’s vision of God answering his lament with the promise of restoration of
the land, 22Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield Joel 2:22 and the people: 28Then afterwards I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Joel 2:28-29 It feels important to me, that restoration is not just for us, individually, but for us collectively, as
community; all of us together – even the animals. This gives us hope in the context of climate change – we try our best to use clean energy, reuse and recycle, and as many of the climate pledges as we can. (climatevision.co.uk/top-ten-pledges)
One of the good features of our Covid response has been that most of us have accepted the lockdown collectively, as collectively is the only way it will work; redemption is for us all.


17So you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. Joel 3:17 ‘Strangers’, here, means enemies; no people will dwell here except friends of Judah. Later prophesies, together with the words of Jesus, allow us to understand that there would be no strangers because we will all be united, not just Jew and Gentile, but ‘all flesh shall see it together’ (Isaiah 40:5 KJV has it right, I think.)


We might read in Psalms:
4Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation towards us. 5Will you be angry with us for ever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 6Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you? 7Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Psalm 85:4-7 Tell God how you feel, but also remember, God has rescued and redeemed his people before. Several times, times without number. 

God has the solution to this, though he asks us to do our bit:
13When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;  2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, 3 to the music of he lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. 4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy) Psalm 82:1-4 (1 I  lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep) Psalm 121:1-4 These can reassure us, but ultimately we have Jesus own words in John’s Gospel:
1‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.’ John 14:1-3


So, we are living through a dangerous pandemic at a time of climate crisis. I have no idea how it will end, and am not sure that anyone else has, either. Will there be a vaccine, will the virus mutate and be less deadly, will social distancing simply make it die out thanks to ‘test, track and trace’? I don’t know. Will we all do our part to reduce our impact on the climate, and will our governments and big businesses take our lead and do their bit? I don’t know. However, I hope, I believe that God has it in hand. We must do our best to conform to our civil obligations. We must worship and thank God in the name of Jesus, and do our best to live in the strength of the Holy Spirit. And, I believe, we need to ‘be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10) – we must let God be God.


I am praying that you are all keeping happy and healthy, and looking forward to meeting face to face as soon as we are able.


Yours in Christ,


Tony Le Fevre 27th May 2020

A gallery of images whilst walking

Every morning for the last few months I have been out for a walk at dawn- or thereabouts  which has helped my health considerably (mentally, physically and spiritually).  Each day I try to take a few photos, mostly with my phone as my camera has proved to heavy to be comfortable to lug about for four or five miles! 

As I have walked these paths and taken in these wonderful views my prayer list has been much on my mind- especially for those who have contacted me about their health or their worries for others. 

So if you enlarge these pictures – do step into them and offer up a prayer of thanks for all we have and ask healing for all Readers in need. 

20200415_064610
20200413_064149
early morning gallery37
early morning gallery36
early morning gallery32
early morning gallery31
early morning gallery30
early morning gallery29

Two more contributions attached: a poem called “The Love of Friends” –prompted by Roy’s Scribblings: the dead man was Rev’d David Nicholson, Methodist minister and Jungian psychoanalyst extraordinaire, and the Minister who gave the eulogy and told the story was Rev’d Steven Wild, Chair of Cornwall District.  Also an article about change that was published in St Martin’s magazine about six months ago.

Blessings, Kathy

This week has been the Benefice retreat. It was to have been at a retreat centre in Devon led my Rev’d Jane Horton the diocesan prayer and discipleship coordinator.

That was obviously cancelled but instead we decided a virtual retreat on Zoom might be the answer!  I was especially pleased for a number of reasons:

  • the cost
  • no travelling
  • no socialising or quiz evenings….  ( I really am under my genial exterior, a crusty old codger!)  
  • and many more…..
The sessions are all on YouTube if you are interested and can be found on the Rector’s channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC5U0mwGDg-lF4aeh1OF92w 
 
I have not included all the handouts because you might like to consider this for your own churches. 
 
The first session was Monday at 4pm  and the others 9:30 and 4pm on Tuesday & Wednesday and 11:00 am on Thursday.  Our team meets for morning prayer daily at 9 a.m. anyway – so actually 9 am was the official beginning. (click Morning Prayer Daily for the ZOOM link to join us!- All Welcome) 
 
 In between the sessions there were times for contemplation and reading, but in reality for me I taught maths to grandchildren via Zoom, told  stories and attended a series of virtual meetings both secular and chaplaincy so I began to wonder if it was worth doing! 

However – I was and stil am walking between 3 and 5 miles each morning, sometimes in silence, sometimes with David Suchet reading the Bible to me (Recently Acts…. again) or music. Here follows the path to a small revelation…..

The short revelation was that the information from the sessions and the discussion had gone in somewhere and I had a series of questions and thoughts that would need another month of morning walks to unpack. That was a treat- its always good to have something to chew on! 

I missed the lunch experience after the last session – which some will find unsurprising, but in fact I needed to talk to Mandy Wells about Safeguarding courses online for Spiritual Directors and for those who would need them before licensing / re-licensing.  We will be running a couple of Zoom sessions for Spiritual Direction but we await the new National ZOOM materials for everyone else. 

 

I would recommend the ZOOM retreat experience without any reservation- it is such a flexible format that you can make of it what you want or indeed, need. You just have to accept that real life can and will intervene- especially if you are naturally busy. 

Kathy calls herself the ‘odd  one out’ because she trained as a Methodist local preacher but has permission from the Bishop to preach in St Martins in Liskeard. Actually the is one of a merry band of us who happily straddle the divide of the Methodist and Anglican churches though my step began from the Anglican church…. 

The blog is sent out to all readers with email apart from the few who have said they don’t want emails from me and to a group of others who have an interest in seeing what Readers in the Diocese are up to. There are also some Methodist Local Preachers who I have met in my travels! 

In the next column Kathy kindly wrote in response to one of the Zoom Coffee & Conversation Monday mornings. 

Kathy puts  into words what many are feeling  with helpful links to get the little grey cells moving….. she included this poem from Jane Horton whose name appears elsewhere in today’s postings 

I joined this group at a tough time, and it has helped me a great deal. 

Refs I talked about:

1) What you are feeling is grief: https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief?fbclid=IwAR0GXmlSAduU-y3w-zFy7sC5c2kYrRhJ44OBRG3eENwgdUw7MQnosjfZyfQ 

David Kessler’s book  “Finding Meaning: the sixth stage of grief” is on Amazon. “Double whammy” – see text file attached, along with another, my latest, and I think probably last, poem on Grief. Not for the faint-hearted…

2) My all-time favourite book about courage: “Warrior Scarlet” by Rosemary Sutcliffe. Written as a novel for early-teenagers, but a book I re-read every year.

3) Jane Jedwab, Truro D FB Sharing best practice: Someone needed advice I sent this. (brokncup pic attached) If something breaks fix it .We will come through this by being renewed in our belief of being resurrected. Keep Life simple.

4) Sunday alte’s: I’ve been finding Radio 4’s 8.10am service helpful, esp Sun 10th when Rowan Williams preached about VE Day. On iPlayer. And I love Bishop Philip and Ruth’s informal service Live at 9.30: esp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKRtVsTcE5M broadcast Sunday 3rd May (first 5 mins is informal chat and welcomes..)

5) Jane Horton’s wonderful prayer is at the top of this piece

6) Charlie Mackesy The boy, the fox, the mole and the horse is the most inspiring book I’ve read/seen in a long time. I’ve given about ten copies away to people who are struggling, and all say how great it is. Quite a strong Christian message, though not always obvious. Highly recommended! One pic attached: CMcarryon.jpg    FB Group has lots more: Keepers from Charlie Mackesy. Best of all, buy the book!

 See you next Monday. Blessings, Kathy 

Blog

You would think I would have plenty of time in this period of ‘locked down’ ‘social distancing’  and isolation from normal activity but for some reason I don’t!

Lez and I have both commented how quickly the weeks are passing by, marked by the fortnightly brown bin collection or our son messaging on a Monday to ask for our Tesco shopping list or Chaplains Coffee and Conversation on a Monday morning.

ZOOM Morning prayer has given a familiar pattern to the weeks: me on Monday, Caspar on Tuesday, Deb on Wednesday, Graham on Thursday, Jason on Friday and Peter on Saturday with communion service on Sunday.

Most weeks I drop into Bishop Philips chatty service on Facebook at 9:30 on a Sunday before our own. All these things have replaced the old routine of singing in nursery  and checking the diary for the next safeguarding course and of course picking up the grandchildren from school and supervising homework.

ZOOM has proved a blessing and a curse. A curse because sometimes I’d like to move away from it- sometimes I get frustrated with it and sometimes I get irritable because of the way people are using… or rather misusing it.

So far I have sat at my desk in front of the camera to:

  • Tell stories
  • Sing nursery and other school songs
  • Sing the Peruvian Gloria in a service..
  • Read and preach
  • Lead morning prayer
  • Host group chaplaincy social mornings
  • Attend meetings
  • Teach maths to the grandchildren
  • Teach story writing to grandchildren and listen to reading.
  • Spiritual direction and next week a spiritual direction supervision!

So its very early morning walks to keep fit enough for all that sitting at a desk…. I am not used it! Even back when I was teaching I was moving constantly.

So all in all I like Zoom but my pet hates are:

  • people who don’t mute themselves and allow extraneous noises to interrupt-
  • or worse still the folks who play with settings while they are listening and then suddenly share their screen with everyone.
  • Or the folks on a tablet or mobile phone who have their thumbs over the microphone making loud scraping scrunchy noises

Things I don’t mind:

*spending an hour explaining how to make the microphone

 

But don’t let that put you off….. do delve into the zoom world and chat to others- it’s better than isolation! 

 

Sunday Scribblings 6 – The 4th Sunday of Easter [11167]

Hello Friends,

This week I’m back on my imaginary VLCC super tanker.  Last week we passed Cape Town and received stores and spares by helicopter, but once again, the ships agent forgot to send us the crews mail.  It’s soul destroying when this happens; yet it seems to happen so often.  It makes me feel that I might as well have been in prison, or under lock down like my friends and family who are at home.

Last weeks sailing has been tough as we battled against the strong Agulhas current that is right on the nose. The subterranean topography causes chaos with the current and churns the seas up so that they are mountainous, short and very steep. To preserve the integrity of the vessel the Captain sets a course that is considerably further south than usual which means our mobile phones have no connectivity with the South African land based mobile towers – so still no contact with my family as we enter month two of our outward bound voyage.  

And don’t think that just because we are a VLCC we are bomb proof as far as bad weather is concerned.  The ocean bed just south of South Africa is littered with the wrecks of vessels of every size whose backs were broken in these killer seas.

Ten days after rounding The Cape of Good Hope and we are now approaching the Southern end of Madagascar.  Next we will head North with Eastings so giving the Seychelles as wide a berth to avoid the pirates.

We might all be feeling a little lonely as our lock-down constraints continue. But as tough as it is, there is always someone else who is worse off than we are.  For example, 

think of all those, like the imaginary sailor on his supertanker, who have to cope with these conditions every day of their working lives.  The soldiers on foreign postings.  The scientists in the Antarctic. The front line care providers who have chosen to move into hotels so they can keep working and keep their families safe. The list of Angels supporting us in lock down is endless and their sacrifices real and generosity real..

May God bless and keep them safe, as well as you, your families, and your friends in these difficult times.

I apologise in advance if you find this weeks Scribblings are a little dense.  Sorry, but that’s the fault of the biblical text.

Keep safe, keep smiling.

Much love,

Roy xxx

 

 

At the very bottom…. A poem for meditation and prayer by Gerard Kelly- “The Blessing”

Intercessions for Fourth Sunday of Easter 4 Year A – 3rd may 2020 (based on resource in http://costablanca-anglicanchaplaincy.org/)

Lord, you are our Shepherd and we pray that you will protect us from all danger, especially in this time of Lockdown, by keeping watch over us, guide us towards green pastures where we can be nourished by your word and lead us to pure still waters where  we can be refreshed by your love.

Lord, you are our Shepherd and we pray for our church leaders that they too may care for and lead us by following the example of love and service you demonstrated in your earthly ministry.  We especially pray today for all of our clergy and ministry teams who through the telephone, the Internet and Social Media are working hard to keep us in touch and provide for the needs of their communities.

Lord, you are our Shepherd and we pray for the world that was given to us as an inheritance, on the understanding that we would care for it as shepherds care for their flocks.  Teach us to look after our beautiful planet and care for it wisely, whilst sharing its gifts more fairly and working together with all of its inhabitants to ease its sufferings. Grant wisdom to the world’s leaders and enable them to work positively for their peoples.

Lord, you are our Shepherd and we pray for our families and friends who need to hear the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd; who knows every one of them by name; who offers rest to the weary, water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry and light to those who live in darkness.

Lord, you are our Shepherd who seeks out the lost and the sick.  We pray for those we know who are lost in illness in body, mind or spirit and ask you to reassure them with the knowledge that you are watching over them in their suffering and that many are praying for their recovery..

Lord, you are our Shepherd so we pray for those who have died and for those who ache with sorrow in their loss of a loved one.  May those we now name before you find rest in the Spirit’s embrace as you welcome them into the great sheepfold, safe in your keeping for ever

Lord, you are our Shepherd, and we offer our prayers now for all people and their situations. For lives that are going through upheaval or distress caused by the pandemic and in circumstances which only you can change.

Merciful father: accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Amen


If anyone would like a longer conversation (not in a group) send me a message and I will send you an Invitation to a meeting on Zoom to suit,

Some great FREE resources for prayer this week….

 Welcome to ROOTS at home – (FREE RESOURCES) This week’s resources for everyone linked to Luke 24.13-35

https://www.rootsontheweb.com/i-am-looking-for/public-copies/worshipathome26apr

 Church of England – Prayers in a time of pandemic

The Liturgy Committee have created the following intercessions for use during the pandemic:

Download PDF Version
Download Word Version

The Blessing – Gerard Kelly

 

May you who are restless find rest,

and in rest, restoration

and the healing of your hollow soul.

May peace be yours.

May you who are frozen find freedom,

and in freedom,

the strength to face the fire and the thawing

of your ice-gripped heart.

May peace be yours.

May you who are conflicted

find convergence,

and in convergence, confidence

to be the one new child

of your old divided self

May peace be yours.

May you who live in tension find tenderness,

and in tenderness, the tendency to kindness

and the miracle of majoring in mercy.

May peace be yours.

And you who are God-less,

may you find God,

and in God,

the grace and growth you need for

fruit and fullness and the love

that will last you through the long haul

of a lived-for-others life.

May peace be yours.

A Widows Tale – Kathy’s Website http://www.widows-tale.com/

 

Good Friday is always the hardest day of the year for me: this the worst year ever. Yesterday started well with lovely MP from St Martin’s Liskeard; after that, a long fall. But what is faith worth if one never doubts? Hard to share, but “sometimes it’s right to be vulnerable”. And even in the Pit I share the Auschwitz cell wall scrawl: “I believe in God even when He is silent”. And this morning? A song I wrote 5 years ago came to me: words and a capella song attached. Easter is nearly here.

This Blog is mined rather from the depths – Good Friday, always sombre, always a time for soul searching seems the culmination of many days of just that- of concern, frustration, uselessness, worry, grief and all manner of understandable emotions.  Amongst the anguish of the suffering of those on the front line of the virus issues whether patient or carer, politician or bureaucrat policeman or shop worker we look for sense and for positives as we clap the NHS meet on ZOOM and attempt to prepare stuff for others they might find useful.  

The pictures of rainbows have sprung up all over the place and I note these fall into two camps; rainbows of hope and support and rainbows of threat (e.g. if you can see this rainbow you should not be out-  F@@! off home – the latter trend is rather sad although understandable as fear takes over. As Christians we always have hope – we have to have hope even in the depths of desolation of Good Friday.

A little light relief in the next column….. my granddaughter  suffering the effects of lock-down and missing the rest of the family set us all a challenge to recreate a work of art- the pictures are our attempts- you will have to guess which one is me! Life has to go on. 

I am very grateful to Roy for his Sunday Scribblings which are now posted as PDF files to make them easier to read and to Tony for his Way of the Cross presentations available as a PowerPoint or a PDF file.

Last Monday some of us had an experimental Chaplains Coffee and Conversation on Zoom which I plan to have as an open session for the coming weeks. I will put the link invitation in an email rather than on this page fr obvious reasons. Please feel fee to drop in and say hello…. meet a few readers and possibly arrange your own conversations away from the crowd. 

I have been starting each day at first light with a long solitary work – often accompanied by David Suchet reading the NIV Bible – which has been useful though concentrating on rough paths and listening to Romans is interesting to say the least. 

Final thought – if you happen to listen to Radio Cornwall and you do so on Sunday afternoon at about half past three you may just hear my dulcet tones as I cat and possibly sing!