While some of the most stringent restrictions of the Lockdown may end soon, the country will still be determined by the response to COVID-19 for some time. Public worship services will not recommence before we are at Level 2: the Bishop will issue further instructions when and how such services may be celebrated and to what extent we can open the church buildings more generally. Many of us have found the time away from church and the confinement to our houses a bit hard, even though we might also have discovered many good things. I hope that it has given us pause to think what is really important not only in our individual or family lives, but also our lives together as a Church community and as a society.

I asked my son Jonathan what he would want to say to the congregation.
He replied that first of all we need to say thank you for all the cards and good wishes we received on the birth of Sebastian. So, thank you to all of you for your joy and signs of appreciation!

And then he said I should write down the words of his favourite song:

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
give thanks to the Holy One;
give thanks because He’s given
Jesus Christ, His Son.
And now let the weak say ‘I am strong’,
let the poor say ‘I am rich’,
because of what the Lord has done for us.

I think those words are appropriate in these days as they are in other times.

Tim.