This week our bouncy 14 month old Sprocker Spaniel has been recovering from being spayed and her tail docked at the same time.
As I thought about this further, I realised that I was also grieving the sudden loss of a place to worship- in particular the church building of St Gregorys, an ancient place of beauty, prayer and peace, and the physical focus of my ministry here- and also the loss of normal family life and routines that we are all having to adjust to as this pandemic sweeps the UK.
This has hit hard especially after telling my wedding couples that they have to postpone their marriage in church after their months of planning and anticipation for their special day. And for those families who planned to have a funeral service in church for their loved one and now have to accept a bare, minimal few prayers (if that) and now have an uncertain wait to have a memorial service with family and friends.
I am sure I am not alone in having such feelings of disorientation, sadness and grief..But what do we do with these feelings in such unexpected and unchartered times??
In light of the week that we have just had to face, I have been drawn to one of the readings for the second service on Passion Sunday which is Lamentations 3:19-33 written in the 500’s BC and attributed to the prophet Jeremiah.
It is a ‘lament’ which is the Hebrew word for ‘how?’ (We could add ‘why?’ ‘For how long? ‘…)
