I have decided to share a letter from Bishop Christopher with you this month. It was sent to all Clergy, Readers and Churchwardens on 24th February with a request to share it more widely.
Bishop Christopher writes;
“I write to you from the Houses of Parliament. I have been here all week. The Ukrainian Crisis has been a constant theme. Each day I’ve led prayers in the House of Lords, with the persistent threat of war in Europe lending them great urgency and poignancy.
As the week has unfolded, our worst fears have been realised and the people of Ukraine are now suffering a terrible onslaught. One of the lines from the ancient psalm I used this morning says,’ I sought the Lord and he heard me: yea he delivered me out of all my fears.’
So, this is the time to increase our prayer and to seek the Lord, that God’s ways of peace would prevail and break through the violence. I call on all people of prayer across Coventry and Warwickshire to join the wave of prayer that is rising in the world.”
Later in the letter Bishop Christopher reminds us that the Community of the Cross of Nails has a presence in the Ukraine at St Paul’s Cathedral Community in Odessa.
The last paragraph states;
“Therefore, the thought of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers dying at an early age, civilian populations caught up in the conflict and vast movements of refugees fleeing the violence breaks our hearts. Let us be resolute in our commitment to a vision of peace and the blessings of reconciliation and let us be ceaseless in prayer.”
We are invited to join Christians and other faith groups in this country and around the world in using Ash Wednesday as a day of prayer and fasting.