Easter message: Kenny Ross, pastor of Culloden-Balloch Baptist Church, Inverness
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
With church congregations across Inverness unable to gather for the most important festival in the Christian calendar due to coronavirus restrictions, Easter this year will be very different.
Although the buildings may be empty, many are reporting growing online audience figures while this year the Easter messages from city church leaders are of hope and love.
Kenny Ross, pastor of Culloden-Balloch Baptist Church, gives his reflections:
I am so proud to live in Inverness. The community spirit has been fantastic.
We started an initiative to bring food etc to those who may be self-isolating and I have a list as long as my arm of volunteers.
We have more volunteers than requests for help at the moment.
The volunteers have come from not just within the church but right across the community including Nairn. So the community spirit and desire amongst folk to help has been inspirational.
It is also a time when people have experienced fear.
I know it’s easy to say, ‘Don’t worry as the worst may not happen.’ The problem is that still leaves the possibility that it might.
'What if I do get this Covid-19? What if I do develop a worst case scenario? What if I am one who is not able to be helped?’
All these concerns cannot be met with science as even medicine can only go so far.
What Easter presents before us is One who has tasted death and overcome it.
One who promises life so strong that even if we die yet will we live. That is the Christian hope and one that we are called to convey to the communities in which we live especially in times like these.
