Day: March 13, 2020

Statements and other writings

A brief note about COVID-19, Church Services, and Communion at Christ Church

We will continue to hold services in the Hall and later in the Church unless directed otherwise, but advise acting with care towards others in terms of hand-washing and perhaps exercising the concept of ‘self-distancing’ from each other. Both the Hall and the Church are commodious spaces that provide room to spread ourselves out, so to speak. These are simply precautionary strategies. At present, there is no reason to worry.

The Chalice will still be offered at Communion but if you do not wish to receive from the Chalice, that is fine. Just indicate by a nod. The sacrament is whole in each of its parts. Anglicans, theologically speaking, are utraquists – offering the sacrament as commanded by our Lord in both kinds – and so I am obliged to act accordingly. In terms of the various practices about receiving, may I request that you not ‘intinct’ (dipping the host yourself in the Chalice) since that only increases the risks of contagion (via hand). Let us pray and keep in our prayers, all who are the victims of plague and sickness  and those who live in nursing homes in our communities.

Be careful but be not fearful.

Fr. David Curry
March 15th, 2020

Update: Archbishop Ron Cutler has released a “Pastoral Letter with regards to Covid 19”. Click here to download (pdf).

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 11 March

Looking on the heart

Discipline actually means learning. In the Christian understanding, Lent is a season of spiritual discipline. It is not just about the lengthening of the days, but a time of discipline through “self-examination and repentance,” through “prayer, fasting, and self-denial,” and through “reading and meditation” upon the Word of God (BCP, p. 612). It has its counterparts in the other religions and philosophies of the world and at the heart of it are the important questions about self-understanding and self-awareness.

At the end of last week we embarked on the beginning of a brief consideration of the story of David, one of the great and compelling narratives in the Hebrew Scriptures found mostly in 1st and 2nd Samuel. David is a kind of ‘everyman’; that is to say, that his story reveals something to us about ourselves. In a way, the story of David is like a mirror held up to us so that we may see the truth about ourselves and as a window through which we may see something of the wonder of God, of one another, and of creation. A mirror and a window. The story of David begins with him being anointed as king. The context is a question about how Israel as a community is to be governed. Will it be by the prophets? Or by a king?

Samuel is the prophet sent by God to anoint as king one of the sons of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Seven of the sons of Jesse are brought before Samuel but in each case none of them are chosen. “The Lord sees,” Samuel is told, “not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” It is that sensibility that goes to the heart of the story of David and speaks most profoundly to our image obsessed world of selfies and instagram posts, twitter and facebook. You are more than your selfie, more than the image you present or as others imagine, more than the flickering shadows of your devices. David, the youngest son, is out tending sheep. He is sent for and, behold, the Lord says, “this is he.”

In many ways, it is a question about character but not on any strength of our own. This week in Chapel, we heard the story of David and Goliath and the story of the friendship between David and Jonathan. When we come back from the March break, we will continue with the story of David which entails the sin of David and his repentance. The ‘hero’ is not without his faults and failings. David shows us, as the preacher and poet John Donne notes, “the slippery ways into sin but also the penitential ways out of sin.” Pretty powerful stuff, the stuff of education.

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