One Boat Chaplaincy for Covid 19 times, was established on the 30th March 2020, in response to Pope Francis’ call to acknowledge in a fresh way during these strange and altered times, that we are members of one fragile boat, the common boat of humanity, and pray for one another as the pandemic paces across the globe.
The pages are designed to connect those of formal and less formalised faith who wish to respond to the Pope’s petition to reflect on the words of Christ, deepen the bonds of loving kindness and pray. We are all called to be rowing together for the benefit of all in these turbulent waters. The Covid 19 pandemic is causing social and economic dislocation, revealing levels of inequality which were previously hidden, and tossing whole societies, economies, households and personal lives, in its strong currents of uncertainty alongside its wilder moments of infection and increased morbidity.
One Boat Chaplaincy offers an opportunity for different communities, joined by the power of the internet to share in an act of ‘daily worship and reflection’. With Benin, Beijing, Birmingham, the Bermudas, Boston and Bangalore being an equivalent distance in the virtual geography of social distancing and the internet, there has been no better time or opportunity for exploring the rich variety of voices located internationally in the expression of faith communities. We seek to be building empathatic muscles during this time of ‘accidental training’, seeking a way forward to announce hope, elaborate principles to express social justice, and encourage each other in dreaming towards and elaborating a ‘better way’ for people to look after one another as Ubuntu. That is the term so beloved by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, where he recalls the significance of community, for the healthy expression of the individual. As those set in a global community which we all have unparalleled opportunity to connect with, let us take up our responsibility and accountability to one another, to the planet, and to the divine, as we move forward in this peri Covid 19 times, to learn its lessons, and build a better way.
Pope Francis at the Orbis et Urbis mass in Rome 2020
The Pope pointed to the numerous examples of faith that guide humanity through their witness and work, including the efforts of priests, social workers, volunteers, nurses, supermarket employees and doctors.
‘They teach us,‘ Pope Francis suggested, ‘to offer ourselves to others amidst this pandemic.‘
“Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them,” he said. “and then like the disciples, we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck.”
As lock down has occurred and millions of households across the world are forced to stay at home and put social life on hold, whilst others are cast adrift of their safety and have been evicted on precarious journeys of migration seeking a place to call home, One Boat Chaplaincy, has opened up a space for prayer, reflection and calls to action for embracing a better way, a more inclusive, spiritually balanced, and kinder way to undertake our post Covid 19 realities.
Pope Francis has called Covid 19 a “a time of choosing.” It is a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not,” he said.
May God’s richest blessings rest on you at this time, and protective shield be set around you. Enjoy sampling the daily reflections which have been gathered over these last 6 weeks of on-line broadcasting, share your comments, and do let others know about this resource, as we move forward against the pandemic, and for a better way of co-operation to build a sustainable and fairer world post our strange times of learning and struggle with Covid 19.