November brings us a sobering time. We began the month with All Saints and All Souls days, times of remembering those saints who have given us examples of how to be human and yet also godly, and times of remembering those of our own loved ones we have lost from this life and for whom we rejoice that their time of calm has come. Yesterday we also remembered those who have given their lives for our peace, dying in conflict serving their loved ones and their country. These November times are made for a darker sky, a drawing in of colder weather and once again we face greater restrictions on our own freedoms, not this time due to enemy action but in the face of a growing rate of virus infections.

Our lives are again constrained as we try to work out what we can and can’t do in November, who can go to work and who cannot. Schools and universities soldier on, trying to provide safe spaces for children and students to continue their learning, while parents and carers and teachers and essential workers do their best to cope with quarantines and stay at home warnings for different members of their family, while continuing the school run.

This is a hard time. Especially now we cannot meet even in socially distanced ways in our churches. But, well it is only a month. We have managed through a longer time of lockdown so we can do this again, and this time we know a little more about how to adapt. We have our live-streamed services and reflections, our online prayer groups. And through it all we have our Lord, always with us through the dark times. 

Archbishops Justin and Stephen have asked us to dedicate ourselves to prayer for the nation through this dark month. They ask us to remember that when the disciples were caught in a storm on the lake, frightened for their lives as wind and wave engulfed the little boat, Jesus remained calm and comforted them. He said we should not be afraid. So while there is fear and anxiety around us, with more becoming sick with the virus, we can hold to our faith. And through this faith in Jesus we can remember our neighbour, the one we must protect from harm, through wearing masks, through remembering to call, through continuing to care and most of all through our prayer. We have seen prayer answered time and again in our community. Just imagine what a whole month of prayer for the nation will achieve.