There will be no church services for month in England, starting from Thursday 5th November until Wednesday 2nd December.
The Prime Minister did not mention Places of Worship but did say: “From Thursday until the start of December, you must stay at home. You may only leave home for specific reasons.”
The Government website later clarified saying:
“Places of Worship will be closed, unless they are being used for:
- Funerals
- To broadcast acts of worship
- Individual prayer
- Formal childcare or where part of a school
- Essential voluntary and public services, such as blood donation or food banks
- Other exempted activities such as some support groups”
The lack of information about religious gatherings at the press conference caused many church leaders and members to be frustrated as their questions were not addressed, however other sectors such as hospitality, did get an explanation on how the lockdown would affect them.
Bishop of London, Rt Rev Sarah Mullally said “We will study the detailed regulations when they are published and seek clarification on how this may affect public worship.”
As the information about the national lockdown was leaked into the media, the press conference was made on Saturday evening instead of Monday.
The lockdown, includes four Sundays, churches do have the permission to open for private prayer.
John Stevens, national director of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) suggests that churches should organise a service for Wednesday 4th November before are restricted from seeing each other. He added that he felt churches’ value to society “is simply not matched by government/public/media assessment.”
Source: Premier Christian News