COVID-19

As you are no doubt aware, the world, our country, our state, our city and even our church are all being affected by a new version of the coronavirus family – this one being called COVID-19. Previous ones you may remember are: the common cold, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome).

It is thought that COVID-19 originated from a “wet market” in the Wuhan Province of China in December 2019, where it was transmitted from live animals to humans. Unlike some other animal-based viruses, this one became transferrable from human to human and it is a particularly virulent strain, spreading rapidly through China and then the world.

There is currently no vaccine against it, nor there is a specific treatment, although immunologists are working to develop a vaccine and we are assured that the symptoms of the virus can be treated. Unfortunately, the vulnerable in our communities are less able to fight off the virus, as their immune systems have usually been compromised and weakened.

Therefore, to control the spread of the virus, health authorities are recommending that we avoid contact with people who may be infected. That is difficult to do, if we are all mixing together. People are contagious even before showing any symptoms (which can include runny nose, headache, cough and fever, but these are also common symptoms of influenza), so we don’t always know if we’re coming into contact with someone who’s infected. Also, whilst an infected person may only have mild symptoms, they can pass the virus on to a vulnerable person, for whom the results may be fatal.

As many people utilise our church building, during the week, as well as on a Sunday, your Church Council has decided to follow the recommendation of the Synod of the NSW/ACT and suspend all activities (including Sunday worship) in the church and lounge area. This decision was only taken after much prayerful consideration, as we understand people’s desires to continue to worship together.

This action is also being followed by other Uniting Churches across our Synod.

We are exploring alternative ways for us to still worship as a community, but not in a face-to-face scenario. Leaders from our Lower North Shore Zone of the Sydney Central Coast Presbytery are getting together and pooling our resources to come up with innovative solutions to this issue of not being able to worship together in person. The results of our collaboration will be communicated to you as soon as we have them in place.

I will also be communicating with you pastorally on a more regular basis.

In the meantime, remember that, whilst we are not physically together, we are still spiritually linked through love and prayer. God is greater than any virus and we must have faith in him and his restorative love for all of us.

If you know of anyone who is self-isolating, I’m sure that they will enjoy a phone call from you. You are also quite welcome to send me an email, or give me a phone call, to discuss any issues that may be troubling you - or just to have a friendly chat.

There are many bible passages that can give us comfort in these troubling times, but we’ll start with this one from 2 Corinthians 1:3-5:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,  who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.

​Be confident in the love, compassion and care of our Lord.
​
Pastor Rick