There are calls for prayers to end the Ebola curse. Cathedrals do it, churches do it, even educated fleas do it. So what’s it all about? What are they asking for?

That the Lord will strengthen sufferers to bear what must be borne? Fair enough I suppose. We need to relax into allowing the processes of nature to take their course.

That the Lord will zap the viruses because they are less important than people? Are not viruses ‘creatures of this earth’ just like us? Why should viruses suffer more so that we suffer less? Do viruses suffer?

That the Lord inspires medical scientists to come up with a cure or a vaccine? If they don’t or can’t, does that mean they haven’t tried hard enough, or that they were not properly tuned in to the Lord’s radio frequency?

That the Lord intervenes to solve the problem somehow? Good luck with that.

On the way to Texas, a lightning strike over Bristol (damn the place) caused us to return to LHR where we were welcomed by fire engines and ambulances. They kept us on the plane, fed us, did the necessaries, and then we took off again to arrive 6 hours late having breathed recycled farts and each other’s germs for 16 hours. What was the Lord telling us, do you think? Possibly as a result, SWMBO and I now have viruses attacking our respiratory tracts. There’s a wire brush going back and forth in my trachea.

Will someone pray for me? I can’t do that—it would be very un-C-of-E. Will someone pray for the viruses concerned? As others have said, hunger kills more people than Ebola, but dealing with Ebola is more important because rich people can die from it.

Pass the sherry, darling.