Covid and the Church of England’s retreat
by Ben Phillips, Artillery Row:
Parishioners were ill-served by the Church’s pandemic response.
[…] In those weird and strange days, where our collective mortality was starkly apparent, where did the Church go? For most, that means their local church, not archbishops or bishops or national or diocesan structures — and I must acknowledge that there were clergy, like many in the wider population, who needed to be shielded. In preparing and sharing guidance, the level of risk for both clergy and parishioners had to be balanced, but its guidance did give creative leeway, more so as we learnt more about COVID. Some churches found ingenious ways to engage not only with their faithful, but with the wider community. Many did not, retreating ever further in on themselves.
A faith system built on presence, on sacrifice and martyrdom, withdrew behind the locked tied-house door. In many cases it did so happily, relieved that the decision was not its own. The reality is that Covid accelerated a retreat long experienced by many within the church. Whilst there are many instances of clergy who worked hard to keep in touch with vulnerable parishioners, it is more common to hear the refrain “we never heard from or saw the Vicar”. Instances of clergy quickly having to learn how to “use email” sound archaic, but many had no experience of IT as a means of communicating, let alone of deploying it successfully in mission and ministry. Much has already been written on Virtual Worship, with both successes and mishaps well documented. Whilst some clergy took to this “Virtual Ministry” like oddly shaped ducks to water, many of those receiving it felt a loss and disconnection. As “physical ministry” has resumed, parishes have found that long-standing parishioners never returned. The reason to get up and go on Sunday had gone. People simply found, having not heard from their clergy or lay leaders, that they had better things to do.
Clergy and church councils happily retreated behind the guidance, however confused it became at times (the rise and fall of “Fogging Machines” being one example — central church guidance culling it in December 2020). The guidance was seen as the maximum that could be attempted. Creativity, at a low ebb in all parts of the church, was and is viewed as a risk. One priest commented to me recently that any sort of creative challenge to complete closure during COVID was taken by his colleagues as an open desire to kill parishioners. To mis-quote Isaiah, where there is risk aversion, the people perish.
What we saw in that retreat was failure.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
