Thank you for considering my request.

Deacon Alison Kemper’s essay is a combination of wisdom and solid scholarship. The connection between spirituality and the increase in folks baking bread at home was something that had not occurred to me. Dr. Richard Leggett’s erudite piece is very thought provoking, especially in terms of an appeal to keep the discussion open and ongoing. Bishop William Cliff ( Brandon) draws a very useful distinction between ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. His final paragraph on church as The Body is insightful. The paper from Queen’s College faculty is an interesting group effort.

I reckon my experience during the pandemic is fairly typical of most. During the spring lockdown here I celebrated Eucharist at home a couple of times on behalf of the church. ( “Do this in Remembrance of me.”) Spiritually it sets up a real dialectic between the absence of a fuller immediate community and the sacramental presence of the transcendent Christ. I participated in one online/virtual Communion service, as a worshipper at home, offered by one of our ecumenical partners. Our parish Sunday Eucharist has been celebrated here in strict conformity with provincial public health guidelines i.e. masks, social distancing, communion in one kind and so forth. I have been able to attend that each week. (We are currently on public health ‘pause’ again in our region of the province.)

The essays offered in this collection, from my limited reading anyway, provide an engaging matrix which may be used to reflect upon and ‘test’ one’s immediate experience against that of thoughtful voices from the wider church. As with any anthology there is a tendency to gravitate, at least initially, towards authors that seem to be within one’s own horizon. I will have to go back and re-read a few of the essays where I find common ground more elusive.