Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken.
Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, Lord,
Bind us together in love.
One of the saddest effects this current situation is now having is at the very start of life and at it’s end. Many expectant fathers-to-be, are now being told that they cannot be present at the birth of their child. Both prenatal classes and postnatal care has become so much a joint venture for expectant couples, as well as the actual birth, and this is sadly no longer able to happen in many cases. Then there was the very saddest of cases, as in Northern Ireland of a gentleman who after 57 years of marriage saw his wife having to go to hospital with the coronavirus, where sadly she died without her husband being able to be with her. He was even unable to attend her burial being ‘self isolating’, this was sorrow beyond words.
As I have said on numerous occasions, however lovely or grand our churches and Cathedrals may be, it is us who are the true body of the church, you and me. It is not canon law, church doctrine or theology that binds that church together, but love, kindness one to another, patience and understanding. These are qualities that have been so very evident more and more throughout this pandemic. Those many, many people who have put their own wellbeing to one side for the sake of others. In just a week’s time it will be Good Friday when the greatest of self sacrifices was made, on the cross, for all human kind.
So as we approach Easter week let us all be bound together in love, one for another, and give grateful thanks for all those who show that love and care, as our Lord did, in their selfless daily actions.
Amen.
Michael Tonkin
3rd April 2020