Coronavirus has locked my congregation out
by Giles Fraser, UnHerd:
It is heartbreaking to celebrate Mass in an empty church.
In the vestry of my church in south London there is a list of Rectors of the parish going back to 1313. In that time, not once has the central church advised us to lock our doors to parishioners. Nazi bombers put us out of action for a while. But not since 1208 has the Church of England closed its doors to public worship. Though of course, as Roman Catholics will be eager to point out, there wasn’t such a thing as the Church of England back then. The advice issued this week that “public worship is suspended until further notice” is without precedent. And it will change the church in this country forever.
The advice came too late to inform a number of my congregation who made their way to church for Tuesday night Mass. “I am sorry,” I said weakly, through the glass panel in the door. George had come down from Islington. He said that if I were any sort of priest I would tell the archbishops where to stick it, and open up. I tried to explain: pressure on the NHS, keeping the elderly safe, flattening the curve.
But he didn’t get it. We both walked away from the window, him back home, me to the altar. And a little part of me died inside.
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