In March of 2020 the Covid Lockdowns began. This impacted the life of the United Kingdom, and the Church of England was no exception.
My last sermon was preached on the 15th of March.
On Monday the 16th of March the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, informed the Nation “now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and travel”.
The following day, the 17th of March, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York sent a letter to all the Clergy of the Church of England: we are now asking the Church of England in all its parishes, chaplaincies and ministries to serve all people in a new way. Public worship will have to stop for a season. Our usual pattern of Sunday services and other mid-week gatherings must be put on hold.
That letter concluding by saying: This is a defining moment for the Church of England. Are we truly a church for all, or just the church for ourselves?
I’ve come to agree that it was a defining moment for the Church, and sadly I think that by closing our doors we focused too much on not being a ‘risk’ to those who were seeking, indeed who needed, spiritual support and hope in a time of national fear and distress.
On the 23rd of March Lockdowns were formally announced, and legally came into force on the 26th. These were initially to last three weeks, and be reviewed on the 16th of April. Easter was on the 12th of April; thus we were to be unable to meet, even cautiously, for Holy Week or Easter.
At that point our Churches were not remotely equipped for a primarily digital economy. One of my first tasks was to work with the Church Warden to overhaul our outdated website so that we could effectively share the latest news regarding services and how to access pastoral support. Once the website was in place I then began looking at content we could provide people with and set up the Diss Team Ministry YouTube Channel on the 31st of March.
On the 1st of April I recorded and uploaded a demonstration video complete with animated logo and website intro, as well as examples of video editing which may seem obvious now but were new to the Ministry Team then. The Ministry Team were delighted and we resolved to have a daily reflection video from Palm Sunday through to Easter Day. The only catch being that Palm Sunday was the 4th of April and the others would need longer to learn how to film and edit something. As such I did the reflections for Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday. Our Team Vicar John did one for Good Friday, and our Rector Tony did one for Easter Day. Thereafter the Ministry Team took it in turns to produce a video each Sunday throughout the ever expanding lockdowns until our first service back in Church on the 1st of August.
Please do forgive the more lengthy introduction however I’ve decided that I will include my video reflections from this time in this Podcast as although in an entirely different context these are still sermons from the pilgrim path, and I offer them here both as an encouragement to you but also as something of a time capsule to document the efforts we made to offer ministry in an unprecedented time. Whilst I might wish things had gone differently, I can say confidently that within the limitations we found ourselves we tried our best.
And so this is the reflection which was offered for Palm Sunday in the Lockdowns of 2020.
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Please forgive the sound quality of my webcam.
