From The Editor

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AS I write, the world is in the grip of its biggest public health crisis in over a century.

The Coronavirus Covid-19 has travelled across an increasingly mobile world and caused fear and panic.

It is the only subject on the news agenda today – and for the foreseeable future. There is no normality and the landscape changes daily. This public health crisis is bigger than anything in our lifetimes. Workers (except for frontline staff and those involved in the food and medical supply chain and care and delivery staff) have been told to stay at home. Schools have been closed. The elderly and vulnerable have been asked to self-isolate at home for 12 weeks. Households are being asked to stay away from others. The National Health Service is in the throes of its biggest ever epidemic. The world’s economy is in crisis. Interest rates have been slashed, stock markets have crashed. Livelihoods – and our daily way of life and community is under threat. Everything we know has changed.

The Church (and this magazine) are not immune to the crisis around us. Churches have closed, services have halted – along with vital work undertaken at local level, which represents significant social capital within our communities. Income will be dramatically reduced in the months ahead. Thanks to technology and advance business continuity and emergency planning we have been able to create the content of this magazine from our homes and the work of our external partners has enabled us to deliver the magazine both in print and digitally, wherever possible. A pdf of this issue will also be available on our website at www.lifeandwork.org to make sure no one misses out on their copy of the magazine of our Church.

Faith has been rediscovered and is perhaps the only constant when change is on the agenda every day.

When the virus has subsided, the landscape of our world will be forever changed.

But in the midst of it all, faith has been rediscovered and is perhaps the only constant when change is on the agenda every day.

In seeking to keep the message of hope alive, ministers and the central Church have found creative ways to engage not only with congregations but with the wider global world through online streaming of services and podcasts and are discovering new technologies which enable communities of faith to come together. They have also been finding ways to work with the poorest in our communities despite the restrictions – and the commitment to helping the poorest is reflected in our cover feature focussing on foodbanks.

In the meantime the seeds of a new Church of the future are being sown amid a search for sanctuary at a time of crisis and isolation, fulfilled in the promise of the words of Hebrews 13:5: “For he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 

Lynne McNeil Editor

This article appears in the May 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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