How might we go about leaving lockdown? The Church should be key in national discussions.
The arguments around Brexit seem to have raged an age ago: whether to leave or to remain. We made the decision to Brexit, whether exiting the European Union would be a hard or soft departure, and without knowing what any transition period would look like. Yet these terms of leave, remain, hard or soft may be borrowed for considering our present crisis and how we might emerge from lockdown.
The direction is clear: we are to leave lockdown, but now the debate rages about whether we should have a hard exit from lockdown or a soft one, and what any transition period might look like. It is easy to decide to leave – that was shown by the outcome of the EU Referendum in 2016. The same can be said for lockdown: to decide to emerge is simple, based on the best science and falling numbers of COVID cases, but how to emerge is more complex and has become farcical, if not absurd in its contradictions.
At Shrewsbury Cathedral, I have been covering some of the responsibilities usually managed by others (staff who are presently furloughed). One of those duties is to manage our social media feeds, including Twitter. When I tweeted the contrast of what is permitted during lockdown against what is forbidden, the reaction was huge for our small Twitter profile: at the time of writing almost 500 retweets and just short of 1,500 likes. I intended to show the absurd – and in some cases grotesque – contrasts of the restrictions: that one can have an abortion, but not a baptism; buy a car, but not a votive candle; visit a supermarket, but not a sanctuary; get divorced, but not marry; break rules (of the lockdown), but not receive absolution. The tweet struck a chord with people and it is clear that there is no forum or sense of a national conversation about lockdown and how it affects, amongst others, our situation as Catholics, finding our church doors still firmly locked.
Throughout Brexit there was a ferocious public debate on the news, over dinner, in the pub, about the choice of the British people on how the referendum should be implemented, if at all. No such national discussion appears to be taking place regarding emerging from lockdown. On the contrary, given the controversy over the Prime Minister’s senior aide, Dominic Cummings, and his apparent bending if not breaking of the rules, a sense of cynicism and casual rule-breaking has crept in, jeopardising whatever effect social distancing or shielding might have had.
There are absurd – and in some cases grotesque – contrasts of the restrictions: that one can have an abortion, but not a baptism; buy a car, but not a votive candle. – Fr Edmund Montgomery
This cynicism in the face of contradictory and unclear guidance can be overcome by inviting a national conversation about lockdown and, especially for our purposes, why our churches remain closed when non-essential shops, car showrooms, supermarkets – even horse racing – are all permitted.
It gives cause for sober reflection on the place of the church in 21st century Britain – that she is relegated to stage three of three in a national lockdown exit strategy: non-essential, low priority, perhaps even insignificant? There is a clear view emerging at least in social media: in contrast to the pleas to have our churches open for private prayer, what we might term a “soft exit”, there are those calling for the churches simply to open in defiance of the government, what would certainly be called a “hard exit”.
In seeking such a debate, I would begin by saying how important it would be that we do not emerge from lockdown with a “one size fits all” approach. Likewise, with the re-opening of our churches and our emergence from lockdown: we ought not be constrained by a national programme that would treat the urban the same as the rural.
The current situation gives cause for sober reflection on the place of the church in 21st century Britain – that she is relegated to stage three of three in a national lockdown exit strategy: non-essential, low priority, perhaps even insignificant? – Fr Edmund Montgomery
In my own situation I am responsible for four churches: three in the town of Shrewsbury, including the Cathedral, and a fourth in the north of Shropshire. Notwithstanding being a town, we are small. Many of our parishioners come into the town from the more rural areas of the county for Sunday and weekday Masses, some driving for as much as 45 minutes each way to attend Mass.
Just as it would be absurd to treat the whole population as though we were over 70 or everyone as if they had underlying medical conditions, so the church emerging from lockdown will benefit from a debate about how we do so, not by the imposition of a grand plan that is based upon a city experience or safeguards against urban anxieties, but rooted in a conversation from the local church. We ought to hear from parish priests, laity, parishioners who have already had experience of enforcing social distancing in their workplace as frontline staff in the NHS or care services, in supermarkets, or on public transport. Some sprawling rural dioceses cover many square miles of countryside, forest, and small rural communities, others diocese share mega-cities like London containing both a density of population in a relatively small geographical area.
It would not make sense to have the same lockdown exit strategy for Westminster as for Menevia, or Birmingham as for Plymouth. The way the Church emerges from lockdown must have a mind to a strategy cooperating with the government’s advice but we would also benefit from a local strategy based on the lived realities of both parish and diocese. This can be made possible through a national conversation as a church, engaging the best practice and experience of our people, both clergy and laity in our parish communities.
Indeed, we will need the help, support, and practical help of the people of our parishes soon, please God, as the churches reopen.
Father Edmund Montgomery is Cathedral Administrator at Shrewsbury Cathedral.
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