Virtual Methodist

This is the responsive Psalm we will be using at our 11am service in Belfast South Methodist this morning, where my Methodist colleague and lead chaplain in the Belfast Hospitals Trust will be speaking on the subject of "Where is God when it hurts?" How long, O Lord ? How long? Have you forgotten me for ever? How long will you turn your face in another direction? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and fears through the night and each day walk around with sorrow lying like a lump of lead in my heart? How long will my enemies look down their noses at me? Look at me and give me an answer, O Lord my God. Restore light to my eyes, or I will gladly sink into the long sleep of death; Then my enemy will say, "I have got the better of him at last," and my opponents will dance with joy at my defeat. But I entrust myself to your unfailing love; My heart dances with joy at the thought of your salvation. I will sing to the Lord ,...

Today, being the Sunday closest to the feast Day of St. Luke, is celebrated as Health Care Sunday in certain churches (I'm endebted to my friend and colleague Derek Johnston for the St. Luke's Day factoid). However, my thoughts about health care are currently coloured by a number of factors: My participation this week in a major consultation among hospital staff in our Health Trust about the future of Palliative Care. The controversial death, by assisted suicide of paraplegic rugby player Daniel James. The death of a "parishioner" last night in the local Marie Curie Hospice. My continuing ministry to a lady who is visibly fading before our eyes and yet who still seeks to minister to others through prayer. The fact that today is the anniversary of my own mother's death 17 years ago. Death is, as Benjamin Franklin pointed out, together with taxes, one of life's unnegotiables, yet we live in a death-denying, if not defying, society. We do all that we can to avert...