This article first appeared in the March 2021 edition of the parish magazine of St John with St Mary, Devizes.
Although summer remains far away and we could yet be overtaken by a genuinely cold snap or even snow, the signs of new life are all around us at present. The snowdrops are magnificent, especially in our local woodlands, and the days are getting rapidly longer: each day currently gives us an extra four minutes of daylight. It soon builds up.
We trust and pray we are also seeing signs of new life after the pandemic. The number of new Covid-19 cases in the UK is decreasing at some speed, the horrifying daily death toll is also mercifully falling rapidly, the number of people vaccinated is going up, and the government has presented its roadmap out of lockdown, promising an end to restrictions by late June. As ordinary citizens, we can do little but trust and pray that our scientists and statisticians have done their modelling correctly and that this will indeed be our last lockdown.
In that light, after discussions at the Parochial Church Council, we are planning a return to services in church on Sundays. There has, however, been a recent and fairly significant outbreak in Devizes, with local infection rates running at 2½ times the average for England. This has gone almost unreported in the local press, but is a reality. Responsibility demands we wait for that to subside before bringing people back into church, other recent local outbreaks indicate we can expect this to happen quickly under lockdown conditions. The PCC has delegated the decision on a date of return to the churchwardens, who will review the situation every week. We will not delay any longer than necessary, and barring truly exceptional circumstances envisage being back in church by Holy Week and possibly some time before. We will contact people by e-mail, or by telephone for those without access to the Internet, on the Monday before any Sunday return.
For the moment, both Church of England and government regulations impose significant restrictions on the nature of worship. At least for the first few Sundays back in church, the only music will be from the organ, communion will be distributed to people in pews, and masks must be worn. We will have a limit of 30 worshippers and careful attention will be paid to ventilation, so dress warmly. We hope and trust these restrictions will be progressively removed in the coming months.
In the meantime, remember that we pray the Stations of the Cross together on Zoom every Friday in Lent, as well as Sunday Morning Prayer and BCP Evening Prayer on Wednesdays. For those without Internet access, a dial-in facility is now available. The pre-recorded services will be provided on YouTube and Facebook every Sunday until we return.
Scripture records that in the first Lent, Jesus was driven out into the wilderness by the Spirit (Mk 1:12-13). It wasn’t necessarily an experience he chose for himself. We too have been driven out into a social and spiritual wilderness.
Every Lent is, however, followed by Easter. After the horrifying experiences we have endured, now might be a good time to reflect on how we can return to normal Church life full of hope and confidence that the Lord has wonderful new things in store for us in this parish. This year, our Gospel readings on Sundays come predominantly from St Mark; the Markan resurrection account (Mk 16:1-8) is anything but sanitised. When the angel tells Salome and the two Marys at the tomb that Jesus has been raised from the dead, they run from the tomb in terror. There is a strangely numbing security to despair and stagnation. In contrast, hope is tinged with risk: but without risk there can be no growth or reward.
