6 mins
The Big Question
The Rev Hugh O’Brien, minister at Macduff Parish Church
“I have been heartened by, but not surprised at, the care and concern our folk within our church family and the local community have shown during these difficult months and I could fill pages with examples.
“What has surprised me, and I am sure other colleagues, are the opportunities which have opened up in terms of communicating the gospel to people who would not think of entering our church doors or who have fallen out of the way of attending.
“ Yes, there are the pre-recorded services, the voluminous number of Zoom meetings, the online Bible study and prayer meetings but here in the north east we have encountered an additional positive outcome. Almost as soon as our church buildings closed at the start of lockdown a few local ministers and pastors including myself were approached by our local radio station Deveron FM offering us a Sunday morning slot for a ‘service’.
“Three of us – two Church of Scotland ministers and a valued independent church pastor – took on this responsibility with the occasional contribution from colleagues from other denominations.
“Feedback from these new services was so positive that we were also asked to give a short thought for the day three times per week. This has cemented an already positive relationship with the local radio station and we reach a wide and growing area in what would have been Banffshire.
“There is much darkness in our experience of Covid-19, but even in the darkness God’s light is seen.”
The Rev Klaus Buwert, minister Muthill Parish Church l/w Trinity Gask and Kinkell in Perthshire
“My wife and I were on holiday in the south west of Scotland for a week in March. We watched the news as the Coronavirus Covid-19 spread across the world. We smiled at the panic buying of toilet rolls. The local supermarket had no chicken by the end of our week.
“When we left on holiday I was fully expecting to be taking the service on March 22, my first Sunday back. When it was time to go home, it was clear there was going to be no service on Sunday.
“At the start of the week I used the swimming pool at the place we were staying. At the end of the week it was shut.
“The surprising thing was the speed with which things progressed that week. Equally surprising was the almost total shut down of the country.
“I would never have believed that it was possible, or that people would stand for it.
“Businesses, industries, the whole economy put on hold. Churches have never been told to stop holding services before. But everyone complied. Shops, hotels, restaurants, business, factories, schools, colleges, universities, everything except the most essential services, shut. Everyone told to stay at home. Lockdown. Towns and villages eerily quiet.
“ If someone had said in November last year that every country in the world would simply stop for several months no-one would have believed it. In that one week, the whole world changed.”
The Rev John Murdoch, minister at Perth: St John’s Kirk and St Leonard’s in the Fields
“E M Forster’s words in Room with a View, ring true in lockdown times– surprising times which I call new expression times/open up times.
“Connections by online worship have opened up wonderfully new innovative channels of communication with a broader, multi-national congregation. Those of faith and many of none have been drawn together from across the world into the global village of the ‘community of the baptised’; my congregations reach out towards the unknown and connect with many in virtual reality and, perhaps surprisingly, without the need for a building.
“Connections formed through a ministry exchange with a pastor in Tennessee six years ago, have borne fruit in many avenues; especially at this time of civil rights affirmation, for all lives matter, we remember the life of Congressman John Lewis who marched at Selma: the key phrase from Lewis was ‘keep your eyes on the prize’ and that concept is apt not only for equality, human dignity and freedom, but also for onward and upward ‘faith seeking understanding’ as new expressions of faith come to the fore.
“An elder of the Tennessee Church, near to where Alex Haley lived, author of ‘Roots’, when I asked about racial inequalities and native North Americans being sent to reservations, said, ‘John, different times, different days.’
“In these different days of lockdown/ open-up, surprised by joy, faith and love we are mysteriously connected not virtually but really to our fellow citizens and most of all to our Father who art in Heaven.”
The Rev Derek Henderson, OLM, Abercorn l/w Pardovan, Kingscavil & Winchburgh, Interim Moderator, Broxburn Parish Church, West Lothian
“At first, with my wife shielding, the cessation of the old normal and the inability to carry out the usual tasks of ministry, especially pastoral ones, was a real blow. Regular telephone calls maintained contact with those without internet access, but the striking thing was the way in which so many people adapted quickly to virtual meetings, conversations and services – where would we have been without Zoom and Microsoft Teams?
“Not only that, but people were reached who would not normally have come to church on Sunday morning and at times the number attending certain services was almost double what would have been the case before.
“One event in Holy Week, which might have been attended by 40 people, was accessed online by over 500! Indeed, some younger members actually found online activity more accessible and something with which they were comfortable.
“Not only that, but we also found that online activity opened up an opportunity for those who were housebound or shielding to ‘zoom in’ as well, if given the relevant support and guidance.
“We often make assumptions on how people will react to change, but it seems to me that the pandemic has forced the Church to adapt and for me the key to the future will be how we integrate the best of what we have learned in the virtual world during the pandemic with the best of the former ways of mission and worship.”
The Rev Gillean Maclean, minister at the Scots Kirk, Lausanne, Switzerland
“Just over a year ago I took the big step to leave my rural Aberdeenshire parish and some much loved parishioners to spend a few years living and working in Lausanne.
“All went well for the first few months as we got to know the city and the congregation, until as Easter was almost upon us everything changed.
“The first huge surprise was that we both, my husband James and I, contracted the virus a couple of weeks into the lockdown.
“We had always thought of ourselves as relatively fit and we have rarely been ill.
“Neither of us needed to be in hospital for any length of time but we were both quite unwell and struggled to keep going!
“I have very little memory of that time.
“We were confined to the house for 19 days during which time we managed between us to keep the services and daily prayers going.
“Goodness knows what we sent out from the manse to the congregation! One day when I am feeling brave I will review it all! “For me, it was a time of feeling incredibly vulnerable and gave me an insight into how those who cope with long term illness feel on a daily basis. It took us both months to feel well again.
“For the first time in my life I was dependent on others and I didn’t like the feeling.
“I can only thank my congregation for their love and prayers and their practical help which was tremendous.”
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This article appears in the October 2020 Issue of Life and Work
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