Many people are frustrated and upset at the sudden U-Turn on Christmas arrangements. Those measures had offered some small reprieve but arrangements for festivities were still going to be minimal and restricted. Now, however, the hashtag #ChristmasIsCancelled is gaining currency. So, it is important to say that Christmas is not cancelled. Now, by this I… Continue reading Christmas is not cancelled
Tag: lockdown
Pantomime Farce
Yesterday I wrote defending the Christmas easing of lockdown. I demonstrated awful timing. By the end of the day, the 5 day period for seeing family was reduced down to Christmas Day itself and only for those who could travel locally Meanwhile, in the south of England a new tier 4 was introduced banning family… Continue reading Pantomime Farce
In defence of the government’s Christmas COVID measures
The UK government has come in for a lot of criticism for its response to COVID-19. Some of it has been spot on, some of it less so and some of it I would suggest completely unfairly. The reality is that a Global pandemic hitting on the back of a decade of austerity was always… Continue reading In defence of the government’s Christmas COVID measures
The year we were given
2020 was not the year we asked for and not the year we expected. A lot of people had focused on the big number year and its association with vision as a significant milestone to aim for. We all had 2020 visions. Others also because of the symmetry of the year had planned big wedding… Continue reading The year we were given
Journey out of lockdown – return to the Church building with communion
Yesterday was our first opportunity to meet again physically after the second English lockdown. After the first lockdown, we kept things simple at the building. We decided not to recommence communion and we continued to stream a Facebook service from someone’s home which people could then opt to watch at the building. Yesterday we did… Continue reading Journey out of lockdown – return to the Church building with communion
Being the local church in lockdown
I would like to pick up on a question asked in response to my post about committing to a local church the other day. The question was that if we are broadcasting our services on Facebook, Youtube and Zoom and people can join in from anywhere and everywhere then how can we still claim that… Continue reading Being the local church in lockdown
Resisting Tyranny – Two case studies
In response to my articles on obeying Government and civil disobedience, I saw this comment on twitter. So, I thought it might be worth working through the two case studies. First of all Daniel. I want you to notice a few things about Daniel’s account because it is in fact important to our thinking. First… Continue reading Resisting Tyranny – Two case studies
When should we consider civil disobedience?
I want to return to the question about Churches breaking lockdown rules and meeting for worship. You will notice that people like me (see also the position of FIEC National Director, John Stevens) has not been that Churches should never go against the law on matters of gathering for worship. That would be an untenable… Continue reading When should we consider civil disobedience?
Opening churches against lockdown rules
There have been further reports of churches defying the current lockdown regulations in England, including one in the Observer. Now, as I understand it, we have three possible options in terms of how we view the current regulations. We can accept that the regulations must be obeyed on the basis that this is the Law… Continue reading Opening churches against lockdown rules
Beware of using experiments to support your argument
I am a firm believing in the helpfulness of both empirical evidence and forecasting models to help us make decisions. However, during COVID19, we seem to have run into problems whenever results are shared and there hasn’t been great care to understand what they are meant to be telling us. So, for example we get… Continue reading Beware of using experiments to support your argument
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