Church to re-open

Another mild cloudy day to help the ground dry out a bit more. More reports coming in about the high degree of efficacy of various vaccines now in use, plus the first delivery of vaccines to Ghana as part of the WHO's global collaboration by countries which are producing vaccines to share them with countries which are not. More media discussion about the stages in which lock-down will end in the four nations of Britain - all are mostly similar, but vary in detail given circumstances in different health authorities. Not everyone is happy with the plans set out, as so many businesses are struggling not to collapse.

Before lunch, I collected this week's organic veggies from Conway Road, and afterwards walked into town to look around and take photos of the Central Square construction site. The city centre shops are all shuttered, some shops have been emptied out and the trading signage over the window removed. It's hard to imagine how the city's reputation as South Wales' go-to retail destination can be regained post-covid. For so many shop workers there will be no return, only redundancy.

Finally a date has been set for the funeral I was asked to do three weeks ago which had to be postponed as the Coroner's work had not yet been done. It'll now take place a week tomorrow. Good news this afternoon in the form of an email from Mthr Emma to say that Parish Eucharist will resume in church next Sunday. I'm so relieved the church's reason to exist as a people for God's praise has been restored in our community. A review of the closure decision was taken as promised after five Sundays. 

So many, if not most of the older demographic of church members are far less at risk after vaccination. Younger members are geared to take precautions and act with consideration for others in church, so the risk is less than it was. Some parishes chose not to shut down Sunday worship. I believe closing is the rule in some dioceses. Such decisions weigh heavily on those who make them in a situation where there is scant detailed local knowledge and statistics to inform decisions. 

Averagely at the moment, Cardiff infection rate is higher than the Welsh (and UK) average. One outer suburb has double the infection rate of anywhere else. Areas where there's a large proportion of students in the population have a lower than average infection rate. Now infection numbers generally are lower a small localised outbreak skews the statistics. I suppose we'll never know if any Anglican parish congregation was an infection hot spot. If we have lost members to covid, they'll pretty certainly be older, sicker and in a care home. However the local situation is adjudged, we must all be grateful that we have survived thus far, and never presume that we're safe from the next nasty surprise nature has for us.