100,000 Lives

We passed a terrible milestone this week.
Perhaps as we had all seen it coming it lost some of its shock impact.
Perhaps the endlessness of the pandemic has blunted our sensitivities.
100,000 is not so much a big number as a very long queue of people.
Not a point on a graph but a cross in our national life.
Maybe we should all stand back and in a silent moment open our souls to the great pain of 100,000 lives lost.

In my beloved city of Bradford it's particularly painful. Bradford is not a big city and if we apply the national statistics to the size of our population, we should have lost 500 people. That in itself would have been terrible but in fact we have lost twice that number. Or to put it another way, more people have died in Bradford than in the whole of Australia.

Sue has come up with a beautiful idea of lighting a memorial candle during our Sunday morning service, which will be premiering at 9am on our YouTube channel. You might like to have your own candle ready so that you can join us.

Will you not revive us again,
So that your people may rejoice in you.
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
And grant us your salvation.
(Psalm 85:6-7)

Next, a quick reminder about 'Living in Love and Faith' online on Tuesday 2nd February. Please email Sue on [email protected] if you would like to attend, so she can send you the link. We start at 7:30pm.

Online Messy Church will be shared next Saturday 6th February.
Families can collect their activity packs from church on Monday and Tuesday when our church is open for prayer, 10-11am, and also on Tuesday 3-4pm.
If you can’t make those times for collection, please contact Sarah Cohen at [email protected].

Finally, if you’d like to join us for after-church Online Coffee, please click here at 11am on Sunday morning.

In the meantime, keep going and going deeper with our retreat.
God bless,
Robin.