LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONA is Huddersfield Parish Church’s blog series that we’ll be keeping updated with posts from various members of our church in the coming days and weeks. We hope it will help you to stay connected to the church and to each other in this time of physical distancing as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Today’s blog post comes from Mike, one of our Churchwardens

Warden’s blog, stardate 15/5/2020 (Day 57)

Hello to all my friends from St Peter’s and further afield. We are into our eighth week of lockdown now and after the PM’s comments last Sunday and information released subsequently, we are beginning to see the first chinks of light at the end of the tunnel, though we will all be anxiously hoping that this slight relaxation will not cause any setbacks. The news all seems to be rather negative with people wanting to lay blame and wanting information as to what will happen. It reminds me of car journeys with the children when we were visiting an attraction or going on holiday. They would always want to know “Are we nearly there yet?”, but unlike having our maps or sat-nav, in these circumstances we don’t know how close we are to the destination and so the answer is unknown. The journalists cannot seem to get this and so we have to then endure listening to people’s opinions, some of which are experts, but nevertheless conjecture still. The quote from the film “The Incredibles” is “We get there when we get there”, which kind of sums it up, frustrating as that might be when we want to be seeing our friends and family, and our church family.

Anyway, slight moan over, I want to mention some positives now. We have had lots of positive feedback about our services, and looking at names that pop up on Facebook, we are reaching people from far and wide. This is most gratifying and thanks to all who have been involved in the preparation and delivery of these services.

We had our first Zoom Bible Study on Wednesday. This was our introduction meeting using resources provided by “The Bible Course”. I was most impressed that there were around 15 people who had joined in, some on Zoom, but others using the telephone, to listen in. The organisation was quite entertaining, keeping us all in order on a conference style call, and the course material was interesting too with lively contributions from us all. A figure to ponder, I think, is that over 400million bibles are sold or distributed each year, and that doesn’t include downloads. Even more than Harry Potter books!

Our starting point is Genesis Chapter 1 (surprise, surprise) and having read it today it reminded me of the passage in the story of creation where (in some translations perhaps, but not mine) it suggests that God caused a sleep to fall on Adam and he took a rib to create Eve. This is of interest to an ex-anaesthetist, clearly God was the first of us, and then quickly became the first surgeon too.

Having had a pause, or perhaps what could be described as a sabbatical, myself and Alan have begun to look at grant applications to help with the next phase of our building work. I suspect that in these changed times the path may not be as clear as before, but there are several organisations who are prepared to support projects like the one we are proposing at this time. Some have suspended their applications under the current circumstances, but we shall explore these in due course as they open up again. Please do pray for us at this time when funds are tight for many organisations.

As I have been writing this blog we have just had the Thursday clap for all those who are caring at this time. Let us hope the sense of community we seem to have developed remains long past the end of this disease and we all retain this caring for each other in the future. As Jesus said “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40, 45, NIV).

Finally, the collect for the 15th May:

Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.