Reflections from a CH staff member on Christian life during epidemics —in the past and at this moment Dan Graves This year, for the first time, I was planning to attend the Evangelical Press Association’s Annual Conference. Not only was I looking forward to meeting other writers and engaging with the publishing professionals, but the trip was going to serve double duty. My wife has never been to Colorado— and I haven’t been there since I rode through as a child—so it would have been a real treat to visit that beautiful state. And then a disconcerting coronavirus became the monster in the news. We waited as long as we could to decide whether or not to make travel arrangements, but in the end, the decision was made for us: the conference was canceled. Needless to say we were disappointed to lose this opportunity. But on reflection, our loss is dwarfed into insignificance compared to the losses some are
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the lord giveth and the lord taketh away In the high Middle Ages, after Jan Žižka (above left) died of the bubonic plague, the military efforts of the Hussites failed without him; yet losing her family to the Black Death also prompted the spiritual awareness of Julian of Norwich (above).
now enduring, and it reminds me of how Christians of the past experienced and responded to plagues.
visions from a brush with death
When Julian of Norwich (see p. 21) was about eight years old in the fourteenth century, plague carried off almost everyone of importance in her immediate circle. The experience made her spiritually attuned and unusually conscious of death. She soon prayed to experience as close a brush with death as one can have and
Christian History
Zizka leads Hussites, The Jena Codex [Antithesis Christi et Antichristi], 1490 – 1510 . Collection of the National Museum, National Museum Library, IV B 24 , fol. 76 r, Prague, Czech Republic The second north aisle window of St Augustine’s Church, Scaynes Hill, West Sussex. It was produced by Rosalind Grimshaw in 2002, and depicts Julian of Norwich—Antiquary / [GNU 1.2] Wikimedia
Seeking renewal
