These are quoted from the official guidance directed at priests. I will refrain from commenting, except to add emphasis, here and there:
In response to government legislation, the archbishops and bishops have advised all churches to close completely during the government lockdown. This is both to reduce travel and to help to model best practice in maintaining social distance. The Archbishops’ Council is aware that some elements of what the Archbishops are asking goes beyond what is required by government but considers that this shows the Church modelling the very best practice* in promoting social distancing and reinforcing the message to stay home in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
Can I livestream a service from within the church? No.
Should I stop access to the site, as well as to the church building itself? Ensure that vehicle access to your church is secured if possible, so that vehicles cannot easily access the building itself. If you have gates, close and lock them.
Can we do anything to keep an eye on the building? … There will probably be members of the congregation taking their daily exercise or shopping for essentials whose route will pass by the church. They could check if all looks well from the outside, without entering the building… A pair of binoculars can be helpful in assessing the building.
Can a nursery still operate from church premises? The government has issued specific advice for early years and childcare. Early years provision can stay open for the children of critical workers and vulnerable children.
Correcting the time of the clock, winding the clock, and raising or lowering of flags does not justify the risk of a lone person climbing the tower.
Can I collect post that is delivered to the church? Yes, but only if this is done as part of exercise or another essential trip… collecting post cannot be considered an essential activity that would justify a separate journey.
Can I access my closed church to do the cleaning? … Cleaning cannot be considered an essential activity that would justify a separate journey. Please be aware that a building in which someone who may have the [birdemic] has been is considered ‘dirty’ (i.e. may contain infection) for 72 hours afterwards.
Should we still pay our parish share? Parishes should aim to pay as much of their parish share – ideally all – as they are able. The work of the Church continues, albeit in a different way.
Are we allowed to lead worship outdoors, if people maintain 2m distance? No. The Archbishops have given clear guidance that our church buildings are closed and there should be no public worship.
Will food banks have to close? Foodbanks and services such as GoodSAM should continue where possible under strict guidelines
The church (or a hall) is used for blood donation, can it continue? Yes. Donating blood is an essential activity, and travelling to give blood is allowed.
My summary – The Archbishops have decided, going beyond government requirements, that (ideally) churches should be closed, locked, nobody should enter the building or their grounds, and no public worship should occur. On the other hand, church buildings may still be used for non-Christian purposes. And the congregation should continue to pay their full tithe.
An alternative understanding would be that in exceptional circumstances they have made some very difficult decisions under great pressure, not all of which will be perfect, but that it doesn’t matter that much as we will be back in our buildings before long, and the NT attaches no importance to buildings anyway. And imagine the inverse of the situation – how they would have been criticised (probably here) if they had taken insufficient action which had led to Covid being spread through clergy and/or services (as in other countries).
You’re so very, very generous David.
And out of context your generosity might be reasonable, but it simply echoes the embedded view of the irrelevance of the gospel and the importance of social work. Or at best a social gospel.
It’s not possible to argue that covid could spread through one person entering a building, which was allowed by government but not by the cofe.
Besides, how is Cottrell’s instruction for clergy to do the shopping any less risky, surely it’s far more likely to spread covid 19.
Thanks (I think!) 😉
I don’t see the link at all to be honest – most of us evangelicals in the C of E including evangelical bishops are getting on with preaching the gospel and making the most of the (many) new and indeed diverse opportunities arising as a result of the pandemic. For myself I see no Biblical imperative to have to livestream or record my church service from a building, no Biblical imperative to defy a Bishop over their (possibly over-zealous) desire to avoid church ministers and congregations hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons re Covid, and instead a clear NT disinterest in physical buildings but instead a clear NT emphasis on preaching the gospel. Which is the priority. Grace and peace. 🙂
Thanks (I think!) 😉
I don’t see the link at all to be honest – most of us evangelicals in the C of E including evangelical bishops are getting on with preaching the gospel and making the most of the (many) new and indeed diverse opportunities arising as a result of the pandemic. For myself I see no Biblical imperative to have to livestream or record my church service from a building, no Biblical imperative to defy a Bishop over their (possibly over-zealous) desire to avoid church ministers and congregations hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons re Covid, and instead a clear NT disinterest in physical buildings but instead a clear NT emphasis on preaching the gospel. Which is the priority. Grace and peace. 🙂
It’s perfect possibly to spread covid by one clergyman doing one visit to his church building. When we went into lockdown the whole thing was about public health – removing as many possible interactions between people ( and as covid is fomite spread the two individuals do not need to have contact at the same point in time, a gate handle or door will suffice). Everyone needed to stay home and that included clergymen. It is not essential (ie no-one will die or come to harm if it doesn’t happen) to stream from the inside of a church building. Church buildings are not the church – they are simply rain shelters for when the church gathers. To put it another way if clergy think they are the exception to the rule of only going out for absolutely essentials by visiting their buildings once a week then why should the rest of the population not need to pop in somewhere for an equally good ( in their view) reason, if one trip out creates 4 additional contact points with surfaces then multiply that by 60 million and you have 240 million potential points of contact for transmission of the virus. This was always about public health.
But they might and the lockdown situation with an exponential growth curve of virus spread meant we needed to remove every single theoretical point of transmission that was possible.
It’s not just the church door. To get inside the church you may have to touch your front door, your garden gate, your car door, the lock of the church, the door handle and the door itself. Repeat in reverse in the way back. The fomite spread means that you have created 14 potential contact points for virus spread. I know people who have tried the door of their churches ( and the back doors) just to see if it’s open on their walks out and about. Your postman or any delivery people touch your garden gate and your front door. Children may walk past your car and touch it….. you cannot say that you can guarantee no-one will touch it.
Add to that the pressures that clergymen will come under as soon as the public knows they are going in – “if you can go in on your own to stream the surely 5 of us can go in for a wedding/one to ring the bells/change the tablecloths” etc etc It’s much easier to have a line which says “is it essential” and if the answer is “no” you don’t do it
‘…and the NT attaches no importance to buildings anyway.’
If you mean that it doesn’t specifically encourage (or even endorse) the existence and use of church buildings, that is true. And so it might be fair to say there is no NT theology which describes any particular function for or spiritual value to church buildings. But absence of endorsement cannot be taken as an assumption of worthlessness or even lack of importance. If that were the case, there might be a fair amount of what we Christians regard as contributing to the glory of God and the mission of the church which could be said to have no value!
On the other hand the Old Testament is full of reference to physical places; and of course a fair number of chapters in Exodus go into great detail about the construction and furniture of the tabernacle. And that implies at least that God viewed physical spaces as worthy for playing a significant role in the relationship between himself and his people. Did that principle come to an end when the curtain in the temple was split apart? The disciples certainly continued going to the temple for a while after Pentecost. Specifically Christian buildings have certainly been a natural assumption of Christians down the ages since.
I have the NIV on Kindle. It’s really useful. But there’s nothing like a physical Bible where you have become used to its geography, and which has been a place which has accompanied your spiritual ups and downs over the years. I’d suggest a similar thing is true for our places of worship. Although not to be adored in place of God, they can be places we love because of their uncompromising certainty – expressed in rock and timber – witnessing that he is real and that he really matters. I’d beware saying such places have no importance – particularly in a world where so many places witness to rejection of God.
Despite this being published on 6 May, there is no reference to the 5 May House of Bishops updated advice, specifically allowing streaming now: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/house-bishops-backs-phased-approach-revising-access-church-buildings
It seems clear from these guidelines that social services are essential but prayers are not. Clergy are told to continue activities which feed or care for bodies but to abjure leadership of public prayer, even virtual prayers. Is worship, then, simply not an essential part of their callings? I would have thought otherwise.
Exactly. The problem is that some evangelicals will not ever take issue with what the leadership does or says by implication ,even when in context it’s even more obvious. That’s why they get away with such rubbish.
One or two of the comments below are stunningly naive about what was undoubtedly a case of indecisiveness and misguided thinking in a particularly supine and risk averse House of Bishops. They missed both the need and the mood of church and country, failing dismally in their role as leaders: it was shameful, and now we have a volte face. We have also seen bishops breaking their sacred cow, the collegiate principle, and even, as The Times has pointed out, at least one bishop breaking the very rules he enjoined on his clergy. Can commentators please stop sinning in niceness, that archetypal Anglican sin, and start getting real about what came as no surprise to many and what has diminished the C of E’s standing in the eyes of so many more. But thank the Lord for parish clergy and their parishioners for once again rallying, uninhibited and unafraid, to the cause. Now that is grace and love in action!
In case anyone is wondering about the meaning of the asterisk in the first paragraph; here is the footnote originally linked from the phrase “shows the Church modelling the very best practice*”
*My note – This phrase is the nearest to an explicit confession of being engaged in virtue signalling that I’ve yet encountered.
Anglicans have a perfectly OBVIOUS alternative to clergy-led church services. Anyone know what I’m talking about? It’s called the Daily Office…Morning and Evening Prayer. The BCP contains all the directions necessary so with that and a Bible you are set. Or perhaps you can obtain the 2 volume set of the TEC Offices. Even cheaper & easier are the online Offices. I prefer St. Bede’s Breviary. Why is no one talking about these resources? Clergy? We don’ need no steeenkeeen clergy!
Although the aim of the original Morning and Evening Prayer was for services to be provided on working days for those who required them. And preferably led by the Parish priest, although anybody was permitted to lead them.
No clergy. No buildings. Free church.