The Column with Canon Rev Dr Rod Garner Now, more than ever, is a time for true prayer
FORGIVE me for raising Covid19 again in my column. This is the third time in as many months and like most readers, I would much prefer to stop thinking, reading, talking and worrying about it.
But with that apology on the table, let me tell you about one interesting insight to have emerged in terms of how we are coping with the virus.
A national opinion poll has revealed that, surprisingly, religion has been attracting more interest than usual at a time when church buildings have been temporarily closed to reduce the risk of infection.
Many clergy, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been streaming services online.
This has encouraged people needing a bit of spiritual uplift to log on, join in and learn more.
It’s too soon to tell whether the increase in numbers will outlive the pandemic and result eventually in bigger congregations.
But for now at least, “digital church” is meeting a felt need for some who have not regularly attended services before.
When it comes to the question of praying, personal prayer that is, in our own time and space, the poll proved less clear.
Quite a lot of people surveyed said they were praying more during lockdown but roughly the same number said they had stopped.
All rather confusing.
Trying to make sense of this puzzle depends, I think, on what the people surveyed meant by prayer.
It would be helpful to know, for example, some- thing of their concerns and what they had expected from their requests.
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding regarding what prayer actually amounts to, why we pray in the first instance and how long we should persevere with it when what we ask for is not forthcoming.
I’ve been asked to pray for a lot of people during recent months. I have and the list has grown longer. In some instances, those requesting prayer have seen a positive answer: an improvement in health and circumstances, the safe birth or joyful baptism of a long-awaited child.
Others have lost the partner they desperately wanted to save.
Some remain locked in grief or dread an upcoming anniversary.
On a personal level, I have lost friends who have never been far from my prayers.
Praying is not a game of snakes and ladders – you win some, you lose some, according to the throw of the dice of how God happens to favour us, or not, on any particular day.
And neither prayer nor God should be dumped if things don’t go our way.
Praying is more than asking for special personal favours.
It is right to ask but not only for ourselves. Ours is not the only pain in the room.
Prayer gives us a deeper perspective on life. Through it we learn to be grateful for the smallest of things.
It helps us to heed and then bear the burdens of others, and when things don’t work out as we dared to hope, to decide what we have to do next without losing heart.
We know from the gospels that Jesus prayed frequently, told his disciples to do the same, and that in his dying moments he continued to pray for others.
True prayer is not easy.
But once we know why we do it, it amounts to far more, and, means much more, than simply an urgent request when all other options have gone.