As I write we have just gone back into lockdown.

While the precautions are necessary for the greater good, and will be most effective if we all adhere to them, it is still a huge challenge: people’s lives are significantly disrupted, there is continued risk to employment, further restriction on visits to care homes and huge disappointment over cancelled family events.

Also, very significantly for all people of faith, public worship has been halted.

Joining together for worship is very important for Christians. It is important for receiving the sacrament of holy communion and for mutual encouragement in living a Christian faith.

But there is something else.

However different our styles of worship across our different traditions may be, joining together with others to worship God reminds me that I am not God.

While Christians believe that each individual is loved and valued by God, that each person has a role and purpose in life and a unique contribution to make, we are also reminded, in the act of worship, that it is God who is our creator, redeemer and sustainer.

In worship we align ourselves again with the truth that God is the One who is greater than ourselves and deserving of our devotion and reverence.

This is both a source of strength to cope with the current difficulties, so very necessary in our current trials, and a challenge to our self-centredness.

Let us pray for the strength to maintain our perspective until we can meet together again.