04/20/2021
I don't know if every country in the world has a place that the rest of the country dumps on, but we do here in Canada. It doesn't matter if one lives in a municipality just outside of it or on the other side of the province, or even somewhere else in the country, unless one lives in the Greater Toronto Area, it's the place that is often the butt of jokes and the head of derision. Sometimes it's done for a laugh, sometimes it's out of a deep sense of frustration.
Today, if you're like me and don't live in the GTA, I'm going to ask you to set all that aside, because the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is straining the health care and support systems there to the breaking point. If you are in the GTA... well, you probably already know.
As reported by CP24 two days ago, "The Ontario government is turning to other provinces and territories for nurses and health-care professionals to help 'increasingly strained' hospitals that are grappling with a surge in COVID-19 patients." Ontario's Deputy Health Minister Helen Angus, "said the assistance is mostly needed in southern Ontario, particularly in COVID-19 hot spots in the Greater Toronto Area."
We need to remember that this strain doesn't only affect those with COVID-19, but every other emergency health need, too.
There isn't much that we, as a church, can do to answer the call for health-care workers. That's up to the secular decision makers.
But what we can do is be aware, be supportive - and, as we pray for all who are dealing with COVID-19 around the world, pray in particular for the people of the GTA.
These are difficult times, friends.
So, will you pray with me?
God of all people, all places, all things,
my attention is on one place this morning;
a place of over six million people,
with all of the hustle and bustle,
all the ongoing 24/365 life
that a metropolis has;
and a place where the COVID-19 pandemic
has hit levels that endanger everyone there -
not just because of what the virus itself
can do,
but because of the weight of having to focus
so many health care resources
on the damage it does,
means that those resources are there
for other emergencies,
other needs just as important -
today I am praying for the people
of the Greater Toronto Area.
For the doctors, the nurses,
the paramedics, the technicians,
the support staff, all those who make
the hospital's places of healing -
that they would have all they need
to do what they do so well,
I pray.
For the decision makers,
the politicians, the civil servants,
the advisors, the power-brokers -
that they would set aside partisanship,
listening to the science,
to take into account the lives
for all in their care,
I pray.
For the neighbours who are seeing
what is happening,
and are doing all they can
to physically distance themselves,
to wear their masks properly
when they can't,
who are getting vaccinated,
who are doing everything they can
to protect those around them,
and themselves -
I give thanks and I pray.
For the people who,
for whatever reason,
choose not to mask,
not to get vaccinated,
who gather together
thinking "oh, it's just this once," or,
"it's not all that bad," -
may that which clouds their ability to understand
disappear,
that they would change what they are doing,
for their well-being, and their neighbours,
I pray.
For those who are most vulnerable -
the people who can't "shelter in place",
the folks who need to work,
away from their homes,
and those in the factories
and warehouses and
transportation and stores
that have been deemed essential;
for the people whose housing situation
is not safe;
for the people whose health conditions
make this time of danger
even more precarious...
I pray.
God of healing,
God of wholeness,
help us to help one another;
Help us to be generous
in heart and thought and action;
Help us to live your love
each moment,
every day -
in the GTA, and around your world.
In Christ's name,
by the infinite love of the Holy Spirit,
and in the Creator's strong embrace,
I pray.
May it be so.
