Please see below a reflection from Reverend Hugh Barne to offer comfort and hope during these challenging times.

Best wishes to all of our families

The Piggott School

‘There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in’

Leonard Cohen, Anthem , 1992

I would guess that many of us are only too aware of the ‘crack in everything’ at the moment.
Almost every part of our daily lives seems to be affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. The
lockdown, the closing of school for the majority of pupils and the cancellation of GCSE and A
Level exams have turned this academic year on its head. For some these past weeks have
been devastating as other sources of anxiety, sorrow, grief and loss have changed lives
beyond recognition. I hope that in the midst of all this upheaval we’ve also seen some light
getting in through the cracks. Perhaps we’ve had more time to spend outside, or we’ve
reconnected with family and friends. Maybe lockdown has given us a moment to pause and
reflect, to reconsider what is important rather than simply rushing on to the ‘next thing’.

Many of us might be wondering where God can be found in all of this. Maybe we are asking
how God could have allowed all this to happen. As we turn to the Bible for answers, we find
its pages full of the sort of experiences we are having at the moment. One such example of
this you may recognise from Christmas services - Isaiah 9:2 ‘ The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned’.
Biblical Christian faith doesn’t crumble in circumstances like ours; instead, this is where ‘the
rubber hits the road’ and we learn to see things differently. It is in the midst of circumstances
like ours that God’s hand can be most clearly seen. Cohen, talking about the metaphor of
cracks in his 1992 single, said, ‘that’s where the light gets in, and that’s where the
resurrection is and that’s where the return, that’s where the repentance is. It is with the
confrontation, with the brokenness of things’. Up and down the country churches are finding
that new people are joining in with their virtual services, and the nationwide virtual Alpha
course is struggling to keep up with the numbers of people signing up to access their
material. Perhaps we also might find ourselves reconsidering Jesus’ claim to be the ‘light of
the world’ at times like these?

Reverend Hugh Barne