Easter COVID-19 Message

This is the first time I’ve written a message like this; this is not a researched piece or one which is designed to explore a topic. It is just a few thoughts about the current situation we find ourselves in.

For Christian’s Easter Sunday represents the rebirth of Jesus the Easter Egg is designed to represent the tomb Jesus’s body was placed in after his crucifixion. I’m not a religious person but am engaged with the local Baptist church.

Over the last month, all of our life’s have been turned upside down by the Coronavirus Pandemic. Many churches will be empty on one of the most important days in the Christian calendar, but as we sit at home and those of you are able to go out are lucky.

I have been in self-isolation for my own safety due to my health for almost a month. Spring is normally about new life the contain re-birth of nature the lambs in the field, trees turning green and the sunshine. Many of us will be forced to watch the changing season through our windows or driving to buy food.

Coronavirus isn’t something we should take lightly, hardly any of us have lived through something like this before. But, remember that in living memory outbreaks of diseases like Typhoid, the Plague, Cholera and Polio are all remembered.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues having run for sixty years, the battle largely won in the UK but in 2017 428 people died of aids. On Good Friday, the DRC was about to declare the Ebola outbreak over before a new case to emerge.

At this time, we are learning who our key workers really are, the people working in our NHS and social care, the logistics of moving supplies those in our supermarkets, delivery drivers and often the lowest paid are now the jobs we are depending on.

Those with faith have a very different Easter Sunday, no church but one where they will continue to pray for rebirth and life to begin again. But we all need to remember, many of the elderly have lived through either war or pandemics before.

In the UK we are lucky, we are only dealing with Coronavirus think of those in refugee camps and those in our own country who face extra financial pressure without the added pressure of caring for children every day for an indefinite period.

Coronavirus should unite us as a nation and the pandemic is one we can all play a role in beating. “Love thy neighbour” is something we all should be doing at the best of times and is very important at a time of crisis.

This week marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belson concentration camp, there will be no commemorations of the event. Many of the witnesses will be self-isolating because the pandemic, their stories are ones we can look to for inspiration in this difficult time.

I hope you all stay safe and well at this difficult time