This week, we hear from Church Related Community Worker; Marie Trubic, who is based at the Priesthill & Shawlands project in Glasgow.

As I write this blog, we are mid-way through the second week of the ‘lockdown’. I'm trying to do what Boris has told us to do. I am not accepting visitors (even gentlemen callers!) into my house, I am keeping people at a two metre distance, I am washing my hands at every opportunity, I am only going into a shop for essentials i.e. bread, milk and tinned sardines. There was a slight panic last week when the shelves were empty of this delicious fish, but stocks have now been replenished (phew!)

I am also taking my one session of exercise each day, which consists of a brisk walk quite early in the morning, to limit the chances of any social contact. I have followed the same route every day. Sounds boring but I have no sense of direction and so would need to be constantly looking at my ‘phone to correct myself. I also use this time to reflect on days gone by and days to come and being on auto-pilot helps the process.

As the days have gone by, I have noticed that more and more pictures of rainbows are appearing in the windows of the houses and flats that I am passing. Some have even appeared on the pavements. I have no idea who are drawing these, although I suspect that the majority are the work of children.

I have always been fascinated by rainbows, even before I became a Christian, after which they then became more significant. Rainbows are signs, they are signs of hope and they have appeared to have become THE sign of hope in these unsettling times, regardless of whether folk are familiar with the its story in the Hebrew Scriptures.  

At my induction to the ministry, here in Glasgow, I chose the passage from Genesis as the reading for the service. In his sermon on that occasion, Rev’d Vaughan Jones reminded us that the Church has always seen the tale of Noah as a story of salvation, a story that ends with a rainbow.  A rainbow which is a sign of God’s enduring presence with humanity, a rainbow which offers hope for generations to come.

At the moment, it feels as though we, like Noah, are all sheltering from the storm. We no longer know what normal is - or what it will be. But as Christians, in the eye of this storm, we are called to share, in whatever way is appropriate, our hope of that rainbow, of a safer future, of a God that is with us always and who, as our faith tells us, will restore the world.

Would you like to know more about Church Related Community Work and how you can be an agent of social change? You may be a church member involved in community work already and want to find out how you can do even more? Let the CRCW office give you advice and guidance by calling the URC switchboard on: 020 7916 2020 or emailing us.