Church groups across Scotland are asking Christians to join in prayer at 7pm on 10th May 2020.

This is now the seventh week of joint calls by Scottish churches to pray at the same time in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

As Scotland locked down in March, so our usual way of life came shuddering to a halt. Travel was restricted to an extent not experienced in any living lifetime. Our way of life changed too. Some faced traumatic, heart-rending personal situations, from illness to hospitalisation, anxiousness for and separation from loved ones. Others experienced new risk through their roles, including those serving in hospitals and care homes, and key workers in other sectors that are vital for life. Yet others faced difficult personal situations: hunger, tension in relationships and worse, and overnight, everyone had to find a new way of living life.

Today's gospel reading from John Chapter 14, tells of a traumatic time in the life of the disciples and Jesus. After three years travelling together around Galilee, they arrive in Jerusalem amidst an atmosphere heavy with threat. Gathering behind a closed door, in the hour of his own need, Jesus sought to offer comfort and guidance to his followers and friends, telling them of a place in God's house, and that he was going ahead to prepare a place for them. Thomas, bless him, asked the question which is on the hearts of so many, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? To which Jesus replied: "I am the way, the truth and the life."

Today, in these times, we pray that we may sense Christ's guiding presence:

Come, Jesus Christ, come my way;

showing me your way, through these disorientating days,

and opening my eyes to your accompanying presence.

Come, Jesus Christ, come my way;

teaching me your truth, through these confounding days

and opening my mind to your living Word.

Come Jesus Christ, come my way;

revealing to me your life, through these bewildering days,

and opening my heart to the fulness of your being. Amen.

Signed by:
Rt. Rev. Colin Sinclair, Moderator of the General Assembly, Church of Scotland
Most Rev. Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Roman Catholic Church
Most Rev. Mark Strange, Primus, on behalf of the College of Bishops, Scottish Episcopal Church
Rev. John Fulton, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland
Rev. Dr David Pickering, Moderator, United Reformed Church (Scotland)
Rev. Martin Hodson, General Director, Baptist Union of Scotland
Rev. Mark Slaney, District Chair, Methodist Church (Scotland)
Rev. May-Kane Logan, Chair, Congregational Federation in Scotland
Lt. Col. Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army
Adwoa Bittle, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Rev. Jim Ritchie, District Superintendent, British Isles North District, Church of the Nazarene
Pastor Chris Gbenle, Provincial Pastor, Province of Scotland, Redeemed Christian Church of God
Bishop Francis Alao, Church of God (Scotland)/Minority Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland (MECTIS)