成人快手

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning.

Grief is our human response to the breaking of connection. Some of the most difficult moments, when we have lost a loved one, are when we simply want to share some small joke or item of news with them. We turn to the empty seat on the sofa, or our fingers poise over the letters and numbers on a keyboard. But the words die on our lips, our hands halt mid typing. There is no one to hear or read our message.

We grieve not simply for those we knew in person, but for anyone with whom we feel we have had a link. From my early childhood, I can still pick out the memory of the nation mourning the death of Winston Churchill. The years when he had been at the very forefront, as Britain's war effort came from the verge of defeat to eventual victory, were already two decades behind him. Politics and the nation had moved on. But he was part of our shared history, he epitomised, for anyone old enough to remember, those years of struggle and success. The same often happens today at the death of a very famous individual. We never have met them, but appreciated their gifts and achievements. With their passing a bond has been broken, and we mourn.

Heavenly Father,
We give thanks for the many years of life granted to the Duke of Edinburgh,
even whilst mourning his passing.
We remember too, in this time of grief, our own more private bereavements,
Those with whom we have been close on Earth but see no longer.
Strengthen us in hope,
That in your heavenly Kingdom there will be no separation,
But a place where all long lost are reunited.

Amen.