Church lock-out again regrettably

It's my sister June's 86th birthday today. I sung her an audio 'Happy Birthday to you' greeting, but it wasn't to successful as I couldn't get the sound levels right. Later in the day, I did the same on video and emailed it and that was more successful. I was delighted to hear from her that her GP surgery outreach team is visiting her tomorrow to administer her Oxford/AZ anti covid job. 

Sending the video wasn't straightforward. I recorded it on my Blackberry, but the file size was too large to email, so I transferred it to my Samsung phone where I have Whatsapp, sent the video to Clare (June doesn't use Whatsapp). The Whatsapp software is very good at compressing video to a tenth of its size for onward transmission, so it's possible to email the compressed version using Gmail to anyone, as it's not prohibitively large. it worked just fine.

There was a Whatsapp message from Mthr Frances to say that the PCC had decided to close churches for public worship for the next five weeks. I'm not surprised, but I am profoundly disappointed. There was something very special about returning to church for services, and discovering that despite mask wearing, no physical contact and social distancing the spiritual sense of being The Body of Christ was as profound as ever. As sacramental as hearing the Word proclaimed and receiving Holy Communion. Being reduced to being passive liturgical voyeurs by on-line liturgy yet again is a real deprivation, and I'm surprised to say, leaves me feeling very upset.

As a youthful Anglo-Catholic liberal zealot, it was not unusual for me to celebrate a house Mass for small parish groups, or Mass in a lecture room with students, or even on occasions to say Mass privately at home, but as the years passed I stopped doing this. My sense of value in public gatherings of Christians in a sacred space, its open sacramental quality took on a deeper significance than the rather existential small group encounters I'd enjoyed before. 

I came to understand what it must mean for people to attend worship just to listen and pray in their own way, whether they were going to receive Communion or not. There's more to the 'Fellowship of the Holy Spirit' than we may be aware of. The testimony of some adult converts to the part played in their spiritual journey by sitting in an open church, or attending worship and slowly learning how to participate and feel at home there, is well recognised. Those closed doors and gates are somehow an offence against the Gospel, light going out as the clouds of fear circulate. Spiritually loyal and hungry people will return in due course. God won't lost track of any of them, from the divine perspective clergy, church and liturgy are all ephemeral efforts to reach out, always at risk of failure. I'll get over this eventually. Famine or fast help remind us ... Somos todos mortales.

I watched David Attenboroughr's 'Perfect Planet' documentary on seasonal weather tonight, so very beautifully shot and highly informative, gently raising concerns about the impact of climate change on all life on earth. Then, Saturday's seventh episode of Spiral/Engrenages. There are several new series on at the moment, but I don't fancy any of them. This I looked forward to.