Remembering COVID-19 in Faith Communities

A week ago I led worship at Trenton United and before the Prayers of the People I put on a blue face-mask and asked the congregation if they remembered wearing something similar. Just about everyone nodded yes because it was the requirement for safety just about everywhere when the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we made our way in the world.

I noted that Sunday March 15th 2020 was the day six years ago when the Trenton congregation held it's last service before the provincial shutdown of March 17th. We were told that we'd cease worship for a few weeks -- little did we know -- and the United Church soon mandated closures and provided financial support for congregations, including for remote worship equipment.  

 In our prayers last Sunday I remembered those who died, those who provided courageous medical care, and all those, including school children, who experienced lasting effects from the isolation. I also encouraged folk to celebrate that we figured out how to continue in ministry as Christ's people despite the challenges. 

I saw this week that on the following Sunday in 2020, March 22nd -- today - the late Pope Francis invited ecumenical prayer as the crisis unfolded. I have no recollection of this but we were all a bit distracted at the time. As I read his invitation to prayer it struck me how pastoral he was and prescient. 

I wonder what response there will be to the next health crisis considering the nonsense of the so-called Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. It was the Invasion of the Selfish and other protests erupted across the country. Most Canadians understood the importance of the "greater good" and the per capita deaths in this country were a third of the United States.

Here is a portion of what Pope Francis prayed:

“I invite the heads of the churches and the leaders of all the Christian communities, together with all Christians of the various confessions, to invoke the Almighty, the All Powerful God, by reciting contemporaneously the prayer that Our Lord Jesus has taught us,”

  “We wish to respond to the pandemic of the virus with the universality of prayer, of compassion and tenderness.” 

“Let us remain united. Let us make our closeness felt to those who are alone and to those who are most stricken.”

 let us also express “our closeness to doctors, to health workers, nurses, volunteers” and “to the authorities that have to take hard measures, but ones that are for our good.”

“let us show our closeness to the police, the soldiers who try to keep order always on the streets, so that the things the government orders for our good can be done,” indeed “let us be close to everyone.”