PM to Archbishop: ‘Prepare for your pulpits’ (which you never needed to vacate)
by Archbishop Cranmer:
The Prime Minister’s speech to the nation (of England) has set out a path toward normality following the period of enforced isolation and social distancing deemed necessary by the coronavirus. As he acknowledged, the lockdown has come at colossal cost to our way of life: “We can see it all around us in the shuttered shops and abandoned businesses and darkened pubs and restaurants.”
And churches.
There are some, of course, who insist the churches never needed to lock their doors (at least to their own priests and vicars, who were, after all, classed as ‘keyworkers’): the damage to the Church of England’s mission and perceptions of its ministry has been immense. Instead of boldly witnessing to the nation and defiantly proclaiming the light of salvation from its parish pulpits (via the Internet), every church was darkened; every liturgical service banned. If you were equipped technologically to give remote succor to your flock, you had to do it from your kitchen or conservatory. ‘Ready, Steady, God’ (or ‘Easter Bakeoff’) will become the abiding image of Justin Welby’s period as Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Prime Minister has now sketched out a plan for re-opening society:
And step three – at the earliest by July – and subject to all these conditions and further scientific advice; if and only if the numbers support it, we will hope to re-open at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing.
Public places include churches. The Times is already demanding it:
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