After decades of increasing personal health and wealth and 75 years of peace in Western Europe it’s easy to forget that there have been many times over the centuries when we have faced profound challenges, sometimes at relatively short notice, which have caused disruption and seismic changes in both church and society.
In 1257 the Samalas Volcano on Lombok Island in Indonesia erupted. The explosions were so great that over the following months clouds of volcanic ash reduced solar radiation across the world, lowering the temperature of the atmosphere for several years. The result was worldwide crop failures followed by famine.
In St Albans the chronicler, Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk in the monastery, described how until mid-August 1258, “the weather alternated between cold and strong rain, causing high mortality”. The results were terrible: ‘Swollen and rotting in groups of five or six, the dead lay abandoned in pigsties, on dunghills, and in the muddy streets”.1
Wars have been another cause of profound and rapid societal and ecclesiastical change. Large numbers of soldiers sent into battle, many of whom never returned home, leaving widows and orphans. At the same time women were deployed in factories for the first time for the war effort. Within months daily routines and patterns of life were disrupted never to return.
Whilst Covid-19 is a new virus the impact of epidemics has been experienced before on many occasions. In the Middle Ages, the Black Death decimated the population of Europe, killing around 100 million people. Two hundred years later in 1665, the Great Plague swept through London and in just 18 months killed around 100,000 people, almost a quarter of London’s population.
When reading about these traumatic events it is interesting to see different ways in which people react. Some of the responses are pretty common and consistent whatever and whenever the catastrophe.
Faced with the unknown, driven by fear and the longing for survival, there have always been some people who have abandoned their homes, their communities and even their families and fled to a more secure place.
In contrast others, when facing a crisis, have chosen to stay and add their skills and energy to a common endeavour to overcome the challenge. In his diaries Samuel Pepys describes the same variety of responses to the outbreak of Bubonic plague.
Going back to the early centuries of the Christian faith, one scholar had argued persuasively that one of the main reasons for the extraordinary growth of the Christian faith is that it inspired and enabled people to work together in times of crisis and help mitigate the effect on families and communities.
The American scholar, Rodney Stark, has delved into many of the early sources and has written about the way that Christianity took the ancient world by storm. This is what he wrote:
The power of Christianity lay not in its promise of other-worldly compensations for suffering in this life, as has so often been proposed. No, the crucial change that took place in the third century was the rapidly spreading awareness of a faith that delivered potent antidotes to life’s miseries here and now! The truly revolutionary aspect of Christianity lay in moral imperatives such as ‘Love one’s neighbour as oneself’, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’, and ‘when you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me’. These were not just slogans. Members did nurse the sick, even during epidemics; they did support orphans, widows, the elderly, and the poor; they did concern themselves with the lot of slaves. In short, Christians created, “a miniature welfare state in an empire which for the most part lacked social services”.2
His research shows that when plagues hit ancient cities most of the pagan population would flee to the countryside, leaving sufferers who did not succumb of the plague to die of starvation. The Christians tended to stay and nurse the sick. Sometimes they lost their own lives, but often they survived along with those who had been ill. Such costly love was not only impressive but also profoundly evangelistic.
This determination to stay put, to refuse to flee, to offer help and support comes from the teaching of the New Testament. One of the themes of the scriptures is that we all need each other, that no individual is more important than another, that when we work together and co-operate we will be able to achieve much more.
I am aware that already many people have shown extraordinary courage, commitment and generosity over the past few months. Thanks to all those who have continued to give generously to local charities and churches and pay the parish share. We are facing some major challenges as we go into 2021, which may affect some posts over the coming year. I know that everyone is doing all they can but please share this need and encourage people to pray for this important aspect of our mission and ministry.
I want to thank all those who have been caring for others in practical ways, who’ve re-opened our churches and are still working hard day by day for the common good.
My reading of the present situation is that we have come through the initial panic. It is beginning to dawn on us that we are not going to defeat the virus anytime soon and that we are going to have to get used to living with the virus for months and possibly for years.
As we move into winter many are tired, some afraid, and there is a strong likelihood that our corporate mental health will suffer. In such a time it is all too easy to get into the blame game, pointing the finger at others and expressing our indignation and anger.
Whilst we have to learn from the past few months, including our mistakes, it is much more important to reflect on what we are going to have to do to get through this pandemic in the best way possible.
Rather than blame others, we have to take responsibility and with a steely determination commit to serving and supporting one another. This is the theme that we find in Ephesians chapter 4:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
For more than a decade we have been praying the Living God’s Love prayer, asking for ‘generosity and joy, imagination and courage’ and we are now being given the opportunity to live this out.
In the coming months we have to work out new ways to mark Remembrance, All Souls, All Saints, Advent and Christmas, all of which will require imagination and courage. The national Church of England theme this Christmas is going to be ‘Comfort and Joy’ which is a wonderful challenge and opportunity for us. It’s been encouraging to hear of parishes and schools who are already thinking outside the box, for example, with talk of ‘Living Advent Calendars’ taking place in venues across parishes, Posada events, life-size Crib Scenes, drive-in carol services, and mini hampers in shoe-boxes being distributed to those in need. It would be helpful if churches would share their ideas with one another, so we can build on best practice.
Also during the autumn we will have the launch of Living in Love and Faith, a series of resources to enable us to think together about human identity, relationships, marriage and sexuality within the bigger Christian vision of living holy lives within our culture. Coinciding with the publication of these resources, we are running an online St Albans Diocesan Study Day on Saturday 14 November which will be facilitated by Dr Eeva John who has led the Church of England’s work in this area.
To help us prepare for all these things on Stir Up Sunday (22 November) I am inviting you to join in a time of prayer across the diocese asking God to stir up fruits of the Spirit in the ministry and work of the church at this challenging time. I would like to encourage us all to be united in praying that God will strengthen and renew us in our work as heralds of the gospel of Christ. The time of prayer will run from 5.00 am to 9.00 pm on 22nd November and from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm on 23 November. Prayer and music resources to fuel prayer will be available on the hour via social media and the website.
So to conclude as we look forward to the coming months:
To those who are self-shielding I say, ‘You are part of the Body of Christ and our church family. Even if you cannot leave your home, you still have our love and support, so please serve others by prayer, by giving and by phoning others’.
To those who are tired and weary I say, ‘Be kind to yourself, find times for rest and recreation, share the burdens whenever you can’.
To all of us I say, ‘Thank you for all that you have done and are doing. Let us not pull back from each other. Let us be generous. Let us remember to start all encounters with the assumption that others are doing their best; let us always begin each conversation with a word of affirmation and gratitude; let us be kind to one another, bearing one another’s burden’.
+Alan St Albans
- John Gillingham (2014). Conquests, Catastrophe and Recovery: Britain and Ireland 1066–1485. Random House. p. 26
- Stark, R (2006) Cities of God, San Francisco: Harper, p. 30-31. In his book The Rise of Christianity (1996, Harper Collins), Stark gives some fascinating statistical analysis showing the impact of this altruist behaviour on church growth, pp. 86-93.