Our second Sunday worshipping live in church at St Catherine's this morning, so good to see Fr Rhys and Mthr Frances at the altar ministering together. There was something comforting in hearing banns read for two couples, who are going to marry in their parish church fairly soon. It's a small sign of the return to the 'new normal'. The words and form of a wedding ceremony won't change, but the way the rite is performed has to change because of the requirement for social distancing.
The routine formality of banns calling is so easy to forget when lots is happening in and around the liturgy, so you remember late or are given a nudge by a member of the choir who noticed, just when you've processed in to start the service. Then you have to go back, hunt for the banns book in the sacristy, and slip back to your place during the first hymn. Not today however, with Mthr Frances up in the pulpit reading them before she and Rhys entered to start a service without music or procession. We were thirty adults and half a dozen children again, same as last week, same faces.
Calling banns was much easier in my younger days when parishes employed a verger cum clerk to support the Vicar and look after basic admin tasks. The last time I had that pleasure was thirty years ago in Halesowen. On the whole, when doing interregnum duties, church wardens are keen to ensure everything runs as normal, they know they must brief the locum cleric in every detail each time. The number of weddings in church has slumped catastrophically. It began to be noticeable in the nineties. Some parishes go several years without a church wedding nowadays, so when one is being proposed it's something people in much smaller congregations know about and take an interest in.
After the decline in church weddings began, the demand for funerals with a minister of religion didn't slack off noticeably, with the decline in church membership. In the new millennium however, things have begun to change, with the emergence of desire for secular rituals and growth of a new class of celebrants to offer non-religious people formal ceremonies, arranged with family members. When the churches denied the possibility of gay marriage and ceremonies, secular celebrants could help to devise rituals surrounding core legalities. Likewise, bespoke secular funeral ceremonies.
Bereaved families have come to expect a wider range of choice in the trappings and content of a funeral service. Clergy have come to accommodate most consumer demand on pastoral grounds. Such freedom of choice has led many to realise that having a church minister is no longer the default option, as the number of secular humanist celebrants available has increased. Pandemic restrictions on church funerals has had a significant impact, and the demand on secular humanist celebrants has increased and they are busier than ever, despite the fact their charges are double, so I've been told.
As there are fewer overworked clergy covering more ground, and less available to respond to the full weight of pastoral need, it's an inevitable trend, likely to continue after pandemic restrictions have been lifted and maybe long after. Clergy by vocation are committed to serving the wider community, planting and nurturing church fellowship and worship. The focus for Humanist celebrants is response to particular family need and demand. It's no bad thing, but what are the long term consequences for the loss of the pastoral presence in the community?
My afternoon walk took me up to the Cathedral again. Another retired cleric, a contemporary of mine entered just after me. Perhaps it's something many of us do now we have time. Even though there's no Evensong to attend, there's still the sunlight dappled nave to rest and pray in for a while. Meanwhile the footpaths along the Taff and through the parks are busy with families appreciating the freedom to walk and talk together outdoors.
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