What’s normal?...

 Let me start by quoting an article carried by church media supplier, Parish Pump…

Be careful with Covid, urges Bishop of London…  The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, has encouraged churches and individuals to continue to take precautions to protect the vulnerable from Covid-19.

“Many will welcome the possibilities now before us. However, this is a difficult point in the course of the pandemic. Despite vaccination rates, cases are up, hospital admissions are up and long covid remains an ongoing concern. Therefore, our approach needs to be cautious and careful.   

“Taking personal responsibility means taking precautions to protect those more vulnerable than we consider ourselves to be. Local church leaders know their communities and their own circumstances, and we will support them making local decisions to keep themselves and their community safe.”

Anything I print is going to be out of date by the time it’s read. So I think the Bishop’s advice “to be cautious and careful” is most important. There are no longer legal restrictions governing most areas of daily life. As many people remind me, we have to live with the Coronavirus. But at the same time we need to recognise people’s vulnerabilities, those who are still at risk, potential for sudden increases in the infection rate. So while we are trying to extend what we can do in our churches and halls, we’re still concerned for those who we hope will join us. Social distancing is still in place for regular services, and we’re working cautiously with numbers for Baptisms and Funerals. For weddings at St. John’s we’ve allowed greater numbers - but ask people to balance the risk against the desire to celebrate (sanitising + face coverings help with that balance). Some singing has now started on Sundays in St. Cuthbert’s and at weddings in St. John’s. It might all seem peculiar. But we work with the Psalmist’s question: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137.4) We seek to proclaim our faith in the strangeness of this world.    

Martin Jackson

This item is from the September issue of our Parish Magazine - click here to read the whole issue