[Magdalen] Streaming Services

[Roger Stokes]

Michael,

As Scott said, it's good to have a clear line which everybody 
understands - whether they like it or not. That is the best way to have 
a ruling that can be applied consistently. As you know many English 
parsonages are on the same plot of land as the church, and some are even 
physically attached so you don't even have to step outside but use an 
internal door to get from one to the other. If you allowed it in cases 
like that then why not those that have a gate from garden to churchyard? 
How about crossing a footpath, a side road, ...? The list could go on 
and the bishops would have had to deal with a host of pleas for 
exemption from the rule. It's also about modelling the behaviour 
expected of others. We can say the Office at home so that does not meet 
the UK government exemption of going out to work which is only if you 
can't work from home and is sharing in the limitations placed on others.

Roger

On 16/04/2020 17:19, Michael Bishop wrote:
> I am retired so have not the responsibility of decisions in a parish - 
> and as I am over 70, although I have the Bishop's permission to 
> officiate, whilst I could officiate from home, even in the event of 
> the Rector being ill, in the present circumstances because of my age I 
> would not even be allowed to officiate at the only semi-public service 
> allowed - a funeral - even if I knew the deceased well and only the 
> funeral director were to be attending. In any case funerals can only 
> take place at a crematorium or in a cemetery with minimal mourners 
> (perhaps up to a dozen) - all closely related to the deceased and all 
> required to keep two metres apart from each other.
>
> If I were still in my former parish, I lived next door to one of the 
> churches and had access to the church direct from my garden to the 
> churchyard. Even there, under the Archbishops' ruling I would not have 
> been allowed to go to church alone to pray without any congregation. 
> that ruling is a nonsense - I would have been as safe in that church 
> as I was in my home next door. When I went into the church for the 
> daily office, I always rang the bell to inform my parishioners that I 
> was there to pray for them. I rarely had any of them come to the 
> service, but they valued knowing that it was taking place in church. 
> That could not happen in this emergency.