A View From The Vicarage - August
Dear Friends
“Regulations, regulations!”
How are you coping with the continuing Covid-19 regulations? I hope that by the time that you read this, you’ve become accustomed to wearing a face mask irrespective of which side of the border you live on. A few weeks ago I chaired three PCC meetings on three consecutive days and what a joy it was to see the faces of people I’d only spoken to on the phone for so long. During the course of all three meetings one of the recurrent themes was that of current and future Coronavirus Regulations and the impact that they’re continuing to have upon the Church’s ministry here in our group of parishes. In one sense it’s quite plausible to regard that latest tranches of regulations either from Church or Government as an example of pettifogging beaurocracy or a “Nanny State” living up to it’s epithet. Indeed when one reads Coronavirus Regulations and Guidance irritation is often the first emotion one feels. If we’re being kind to ourselves we could even describe it as righteous indignation; indeed anybody who’s been recorded criticizing governments for their action or perceived inaction over the past months has invariably done the same!!
Yet, the point indeed the very raison d’etre of these regulations and restrictions has only one overriding aim and objective. As a global family we are struggling against a dangerous and complex adversary and no I don’t mean either the Chinese or Russian States, although it appears to have originated in the former. This microscopic virus which has so altered our lives is a dangerous and insidious foe which less than 10 months ago nobody had even heard of. The toll of people just like us who’s lives its taken in our country and across the world is truly shocking and public officials in every country struggling to contain the virus and protect their populations desperately need our prayers, our active support and our co-operation.
What’s the Christian response? How should we react? For me the most obvious answer lies in the story of the brothers Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis. In Chapter 4 verse 8 Cain, jealous of his brother, entices him into a field and kills him, one of the first cases of fratricide in history. Genesis 4:9 is the following: “then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” God then informs Cain that he knows what Cain has done in a phrase that echoes and re-echoes down the centuries: “What have you done? Listen your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground”. The Divine rebuke is the affirmative answer to Cain’s insolent question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes is the unequivocal answer and if that is true of Cain and Abel then it’s equally true of us as well. As Christians we’re called to extend our love and compassion to all of God’s creatures and especially to all of us who are brothers and sisters of Christ and children of our Heavenly Father.
The reality of that is that our own imperative as Christians is that we should all participate fully in the local, national and global endeavour to protect all in our global family from this pernicious and perfidious foe; that’s not just a civic duty it is a moral duty and a Christian duty.
Sometimes doing that will, as it already has, entail us having to make decisions that we would rather not make and accept infringement of our liberties and curtailment of our activities in ways which we would much rather we didn’t.
During the three meetings which I referred to earlier I explained that abiding by and implementing the Coronavirus Regulations feels to me rather akin to the decision as to whether we should cancel Church Services during a particularly harsh winter. My response is normally one of caution over any other concerns. I rationalize that if somebody came and had an accident either on the way, while attending the service or on the way home again, that would remain on my conscience for the rest of my life. I’m convinced that the same would be true for all of us with Covid-19. If somebody contracted this disease because we hadn’t taken the necessary precautions, because we’d flouted the guidelines or ignored the regulations; how would we ourselves feel? Because as Cain discovered so long ago he was indeed his brother’s keeper and so are we!
With my love and prayers as always
Keep safe
Ben