Please keep checking our Faith Communities and COVID-19 webpage for all the latest updates.
Online Worship Resources
Beginning Sunday, March 22, Moderator Richard Bott will be offering an online worship service each Sunday for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak. This will be a video recorded service you can join in on our website or Facebook page. The prayers, hymns, and reflections from the Moderator’s online worship will also be available in audio and text form.
If you would like to participate in the live version of this worship service, please join on Zoom, Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m. PDT, 7:00 p.m. EDT, 8:30 p.m. in Newfoundland. The recorded version of this is what will be shared on Sundays.
Moderator’s Letter to All Communities of Faith
“Grace and peace to you, in the love of the Creator, the peace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. I am writing to you on the evening following the announcement by the World Health Organization that the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has reached a pandemic state. Here in Canada, while the number of presumptive and confirmed cases remains low, Canadians are being asked to prepare for an increase in the number of people affected by the virus….
“Scripture talks a lot about fear—often in the form of “Don’t be afraid!” I know that can be hard to do, but I think there is an important call to us as people of God and followers of Jesus. In those moments when fear gets huge, we have the opportunity to love even more and, in that love, to help one another.”
In this time of COVID-19, we pray:
When we aren’t sure, God,
help us be calm;
when information comes
from all sides, correct and not,
help us to discern;
when fear makes it hard to breathe,
and anxiety seems to be the order of the day,
slow us down, God;
help us to reach out with our hearts,
when we can’t touch with our hands;
help us to be socially connected,
when we have to be socially distant;
help us to love as perfectly as we can,
knowing that “perfect love casts out all fear.”
For the doctors, we pray,
for the nurses, we pray,
for the technicians and the janitors and the
aides and the caregivers, we pray,
for the researchers and theorists,
the epidemiologists and investigators,
for those who are sick,
and those who are grieving, we pray,
for all who are affected,
all around the world…
we pray
for safety,
for health,
for wholeness.
May we feed the hungry,
give drink to the thirsty,
clothe the naked and house those without homes;
may we walk with those who feel they are alone,
and may we do all that we can to heal
the sick—
in spite of the epidemic,
in spite of the fear.
Help us, O God,
that we might help each other.
In the love of the Creator,
in the name of the Healer,
in the life of the Holy Spirit that is in all and with all,
we pray.
May it be so.
—A prayer during times of COVID-19 by the Right Rev. Richard Bott, originally posted on Facebook. Moderator Bott encourages the sharing of prayers he posts throughout his term.
