This week we focus on healing, and it could not be more relevant.  The world faces the Coronavirus crisis, with haunting images of a deserted Wuhan, China and an ever-climbing death toll.

We each stand in need of healing, but not only of disease.  We also need healing from the hurts and divisions within ourselves, our social and political worlds, and the earth itself.

Healing has been present within the Christian assembly from its very beginnings. Jesus healed and ordered his disciples to do likewise. So there should be nothing surprising about rituals of healing in Christian worship.  But, strangely enough, these rituals have disappeared from worship, and, consequently, we have lost sight of the spiritual element in all suffering of body, community and planet.

Healing rituals during worship reassure us that we are not alone in our suffering,  even at our most vulnerable.  Here in worship we are in community with others and with God.  They enter into our suffering,  and accompany us every step along the way.