For Christians across the world, the coronavirus has not only brought anxieties about health, family, friends, and livelihoods but the impossibility of attending worship. Whether Anglican or Catholic, churches have been closed because of the risk of infection from people being in relatively confined spaces.

 

There have certainly been opportunities for service and fellowship: people across the globe have been trying to help people who are isolated and need assistance with tasks such as shopping and collecting medicine. Going to church has become a live-streaming experience, joining people together from around the globe. For example, on Sunday March 22, the first week when Britain’s lockdown means churches were closed, Durham Cathedral livestreamed the service for the Fourth Sunday in Lent from its shrine of St Cuthbert. Its Facebook page showed that the people ‘attending’ were not just from England but from all over the world, and they loved the chance to be united with other believers.

 

Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, have also joined in prayer together and invited people across the world to come together. On Sunday March 22 at his weekly Angelus, Pope Francis had said: "I invite all the heads of the Churches and the leaders of all the Christian communities, together with all the Christians of the various confessions, to invoke the Most High, Almighty God, while simultaneously reciting the prayer that Jesus Our Lord has taught us.

 

The day chosen for the global prayer was Wednesday March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, As Pope Francis prayed from the library of the apostolic palace in the Vatican at midday, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed at Lambeth Palace at the same time, 11am in London. He urged all Christians to join in the ecumenical gesture, tweeting: “Using the words that Jesus taught us, we call out to God in the face of this pandemic. #PrayTogether#PrayForTheWorld."

 

"Today we have met, all Christians in the world, to pray together with the Our Father, the prayer that Jesus taught us," Pope Francis said.

 

"As confident children we turn to the Father. We do it every day, several times a day; but at this moment we want to beg mercy for humanity severely tried by the coronavirus pandemic. And we do it together, Christians of every Church and Community, of every tradition, of every age, language and nation.

"Let us pray for the sick and their families; for health workers and those who help them; for authorities, law enforcement and volunteers; for the ministers of our communities.

 

"Today many of us celebrate the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary, when in her 'Here I am', humble and total, the 'Here I am' of the Son of God was reflected. We too entrust ourselves with full trust to the hands of God and with one heart and one soul we pray."

 

 

For Christians across the world, the coronavirus has not only brought anxieties about health, family, friends, and livelihoods but the impossibility of attending worship. Whether Anglican or Catholic, churches have been closed because of the risk of infection from people being in relatively confined spaces.

 

There have certainly been opportunities for service and fellowship: people across the globe have been trying to help people who are isolated and need assistance with tasks such as shopping and collecting medicine. Going to church has become a live-streaming experience, joining people together from around the globe. For example, on Sunday March 22, the first week when Britain’s lockdown means churches were closed, Durham Cathedral livestreamed the service for the Fourth Sunday in Lent from its shrine of St Cuthbert. Its Facebook page showed that the people ‘attending’ were not just from England but from all over the world, and they loved the chance to be united with other believers.

 

Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, have also joined in prayer together and invited people across the world to come together. On Sunday March 22 at his weekly Angelus, Pope Francis had said: "I invite all the heads of the Churches and the leaders of all the Christian communities, together with all the Christians of the various confessions, to invoke the Most High, Almighty God, while simultaneously reciting the prayer that Jesus Our Lord has taught us.

 

The day chosen for the global prayer was Wednesday March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, As Pope Francis prayed from the library of the apostolic palace in the Vatican at midday, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed at Lambeth Palace at the same time, 11am in London. He urged all Christians to join in the ecumenical gesture, tweeting: “Using the words that Jesus taught us, we call out to God in the face of this pandemic. #PrayTogether#PrayForTheWorld."

 

"Today we have met, all Christians in the world, to pray together with the Our Father, the prayer that Jesus taught us," Pope Francis said.

 

"As confident children we turn to the Father. We do it every day, several times a day; but at this moment we want to beg mercy for humanity severely tried by the coronavirus pandemic. And we do it together, Christians of every Church and Community, of every tradition, of every age, language and nation.

"Let us pray for the sick and their families; for health workers and those who help them; for authorities, law enforcement and volunteers; for the ministers of our communities.

 

"Today many of us celebrate the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary, when in her 'Here I am', humble and total, the 'Here I am' of the Son of God was reflected. We too entrust ourselves with full trust to the hands of God and with one heart and one soul we pray."