Missing Biscuits.

Steps walked: 9860.

Furthest point travelled to: 0.75 miles – jog in the park.

Face to face non-household interactions: 3.

Track of the day: ‘These Boot Are Made For Walking’ – Nancy Sinatra.

            If I’ve already said this, forgive the repetition, but my two boys are Amazing. Four times a week they’re filling in for an entire congregation, and their grumbles are few and far between. They have become so familiar with the liturgy now, that they can offer their responses without even lifting their heads up from whatever book they’re absorbed in. I hope this isn’t going to put them off worship for life!

            After celebrating the Eucharist together today one of them (and this is probably a time for some anonymity – protective shielding if you like) said: ‘Daddy, I really miss church. At first I just missed the biscuits, but now I really miss the people too.’

            (Look, just hang on to the fact that he misses you, and don’t be dwelling on the implication that you’re second in his affections to ginger nuts.)

            In spite of all the humour of what he said, honestly, you needed to be there: his tone of voice and his downcast expression made it sorrowfully clear to me that what he was saying was really heartfelt. The church feels big and empty, and we’re missing each other.

            Assuming that you are in fact missing ‘going to church’, what is it that you’re missing? And more broadly, what are you missing in life right now?

            I’m missing so many things about our church life together, but the thing I’m probably feeling the absence of most, is the shape that Sunday gives to the whole of my week. Mondays and Tuesdays invariably involve responding to pastoral needs and practical problems that have come to light on a Sunday morning. Parts of my every Thursday and Friday are about making sure that everything is ready for Sunday’s celebration. In terms of where my time goes week by week, Sunday morning and the preparations for it are just one small part of the whole; but that one small part is like the centre of gravity which gives the rest of the week its shape.

            More broadly the thing I’m missing is a sense of freedom. I can’t tell you how many times a week I want to go for a walk, just for the sake of it. Three times a week I go for a jog, I take the boys cycling twice a week, helping out at the North Mid gets me out regularly – I know I’m very fortunate. However, this desire to go out for a walk around the block is such a novel and powerful feeling that I realise that it’s not really about the walk at all, it’s about the sense of liberty. Because I can’t, or perhaps shouldn’t, I just want to open the front door and meander, with no particular place to go.

            What are you most missing?

I think we might all find some value in making a note for ourselves of the things we’re missing during this lockdown; it seems to me that one of the gifts of this time of crisis, is that it’s shining a clear, true light on the things we most value. My worry is, that as and when some normality returns, we’ll all too soon forget what we’ve learned and find ourselves swept up all over again by things that really don’t matter so much.

            A friend of mine is learning that there’s more to Sunday morning than biscuits.

            What are we learning?

            What will we remember?