Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News Covid-19, Theodicy and Common Grace
Wendy Bower ViaMedia.News A Sermon for Our Time: Tears & Tombs
Jonathan Draper Afterthoughts Virtual Church?
Tim Stratford One way of looking at things… Changed but not stopped
Richard Peers Oikodomeo Life with Zoom – Small solitudes, little deserts: Poustinia for a time of Pandemic
Gary Waddington The Busy Priest Three Rules for Love, in a time of pandemic
In general I tend to agree with Rosie Harper when she writes for Via Media but I can’t agree with her apparent dismissal of intercessionary prayer.
‘Apparent dismissal of intercessionary prayer’. Can I remind folk that Rosie Harper actually says:
“Does this mean there is no point praying? Of course not!
There are many reasons why we need to pray. Most crucially because prayer is a breeding ground for love and compassion. It settles our hearts, allows us to off load our anxiety and expand our horizon beyond self-obsession to the people around us.”
Jayne, yes Rosie encourages prayer but I specifically said that she dismissed ‘intercessionary prayer’ and she clearly does: ”You might want to argue that the conditions through which it emerged and transferred to humans had a moral dynamic to them, but it seems to me that to pray about a virus is no different to praying about a brick. That’s not prayer it’s superstition.” The whole point of intercessionary prayer is to pray for things which we can’t otherwise change. So we pray that people don’t get sick from a virus: we pray that a viral pandemic is over quickly… Read more »
Thank you for posting Rosie Harper’s piece below with its wonderful conclusion: ‘please stop twittering on about the church buildings being closed for a few weeks, or how valid your virtual communion is and, if you haven’t already done so, pick up the phone instead and have a chat with someone who is lonely. It might just be that this is our biggest mission opportunity ever. Instead of talking about the gospel we could actually be the gospel – no preaching, just loving.’