How long can worship be curtailed?
by Paul Huxley, Christian Concern:
It’s about a year since most churches in the United Kingdom sung together with one voice.
How long can this be sustained?
Feeling alienated from God’s people and from praising God is not new to the coronavirus world.
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:4-5 ESV)
It’s one thing to be estranged due to circumstances. By the waters of Babylon, exiled Jews asked “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” when oppressed by their captors.
Right now, churches are more free in law to worship than nearly any practice. In a way, that’s good – it shows again how church leaders do not need the threat of prosecution to take sensible precautions for their members’ wellbeing.
But as – by God’s grace – the risk from the virus subsides we are going to have to start taking some risks.
Just suppose we achieve Covid zero this summer. What happens come when traditional flu season comes? There will still be pressure within and without the Church to enact social distancing measures – after all, stopping the flu also saves lives and protects the NHS. How could anyone justify not wearing a mask and speaking face to face?
Are we okay with this?
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