Suspension of in-person services is a ‘huge loss’, say Archbishops

Sacramental life of the church “cannot be seen as an optional extra”

Justin Welby (r) and Stephen Cottrell (l) said in a letter also signed by the Bishop of London that the sacramental life of the church “cannot be seen as an optional extra”.(Photo: Church of England)

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have voiced concern over the forced closure of churches for a second time during the pandemic.

In a letter also signed by the Bishop of London, the Archbishops said they “fully intend” to raise their concerns with the Government after it announced a second national lockdown in England that includes restrictions on churches.

While the Archbishops recognise that churches are allowed to stay open for priests to livestream services, they said that online worship “still means that the people of God do not have access to the sacraments which are so central to our life in Christ”.

“This is a huge loss and since we were not consulted about the lockdown provisions, we fully intend to speak with government about why certain exemptions are made and not others, emphasising the critical role that churches play in every community,” they said.

“The sacramental life of the church cannot be seen as an optional extra. Nor can we separate out our worship from our service, it is always both and not either or.”

The Church of England is to issue guidance to parishes before the lockdown starts on Thursday. The Archbishops said that churches should “abide by the law”, and use the lockdown as a “month of prayer”.

Elsewhere in the letter, the Archbishops admitted they may have been “overly” cautious during the first lockdown.

“We are sure that some of you reading this letter will wish we had made other decisions during the period of the first lockdown, or even challenged the government harder on the decisions it has made. You may be right,” they said.

“However, it is our view that the best way we can serve our nation now is by pouring our energy into doing the things that we can do, which is to pray and to serve.

“We also dare to hope that we will be kind to each other and that God will give us the courage and humility we need to be faithful witnesses to the gospel of peace.”

They added: “We are grateful that the new guidelines being introduced on Thursday not only allow churches to remain open for private prayer but also enable online worship to be broadcast from the church building.

“We were cautious about these issues during the first lockdown – perhaps overly so – but in this second lockdown we want to encourage church buildings to remain open for private prayer wherever possible, making sure that their buildings are Covid secure in the ways that we have learned in recent months, and to broadcast services from their church buildings.”