When the COVID-19 restrictions began to kick in, like many others we began to ramp up our online content. My personal involvement included restarting Faithroots, uploading short videos to Youtube and opening a Facebook account so that I could broadcast regularly. At the height of the pandemic, I was running twice daily prayer services and… Continue reading Why we will be cutting back on our online output
Tag: lockdown
What a church can learn from a public heath director
Yesterday I had the privilege of interviewing Lisa McNally, Sandwell’s Director of Public Health. We were talking about avoiding local lockdowns and the part the community can play. Reflecting back on the conversation I was struck about some important lessons for churches in the discussion that go beyond questions about pandemics. So, here’s a summary… Continue reading What a church can learn from a public heath director
What if people don’t come back to church?
This article from Thom Rainer is a sobering read. Although written from a US perspective, I think it is likely to be very true of the UK situation too. Certainly, there are things I recognise as I read the article. I want to add a qualification and then consider how we respond. The qualification is… Continue reading What if people don’t come back to church?
Church is about more than a quick in and out visit
When people have come to join us at Bearwood from a more Roman Catholic or High Church background, there are often some tell-tale signs. One is the tendency to arrive as close to the start time as possible and leave quickly at the end avoiding much social interaction with others. So, when I first saw… Continue reading Church is about more than a quick in and out visit
We won’t beat COVID-19 if we don’t understand the problem
This is a fascinating report from the BBC on Coronavirus on my home city, Bradford. I had already seen some reports of smaller towns and villages which are included within the metropolitan district complaining that they had been included in measures because the local authority did not want to make distinctions within its boundaries. Meanwhile… Continue reading We won’t beat COVID-19 if we don’t understand the problem
Coronavirus – did we set the wrong priorities?
I am continuing to think about how we have done so far during the coronavirus pandemic. As I said in an earlier post, one measure of this is how we are doing against the objectives the Government set out. However, we should also step back and ask whether those were the right objectives. One issue… Continue reading Coronavirus – did we set the wrong priorities?
Asking the unreasonable questions – Coronavirus
A little while back, I pointed out that we don’t ask the seemingly unreasonable questions and so we don’t get to do the real deep analysis that helps us solve problems. In that specific context, I was talking about the investigation into PHE’s reporting of COVID-19 related deaths outside of hospital. I suggested that we… Continue reading Asking the unreasonable questions – Coronavirus
local lockdowns and the local church
When Leicester went back into “lockdown” the Government explained that their strategy would be what they referred to as “whack-a-mole” acting quickly with local lockdowns to supress new spikes. Last night, we saw the most significant example of this yet as parts of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester had new restrictions imposed. This is something… Continue reading local lockdowns and the local church
Behavioural Fatigue -did we get tired of lockdown and did the Government correctly predict this?
A lot of journalists spend their time tweeting these days and it is perhaps a better insight into their thought process than the edited results on TV. Here for example is the BBC’s Lewis Goodall. Now, the first thing that springs to mind reading the thread is “wouldn’t that have been a good thing for… Continue reading Behavioural Fatigue -did we get tired of lockdown and did the Government correctly predict this?
Fighting a pandemic, how have we done so far?
As life begins to return to normal, it is perhaps a good opportunity to look back on the past few months and reflect on how the UK has done so far in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. I say “so far” because we are still not out of the woods yet. The virus is still… Continue reading Fighting a pandemic, how have we done so far?
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