Coronavirus Ad Clerum 14092020

Dear sisters and brothers in the LORD

Today is Holy Cross Day. It is an opportunity to recall with particular wonder and gratitude the mystery of our salvation, won at Calvary at such a great cost. Those of us who are baptised have been marked with that cross: we are baptised into our Saviour’s death, so that we might also be united with him in his resurrection. We live out our lives under that sign. As the Apostle Paul puts it in his letter to the Galatians (2.19b-20): ‘I have been crucified with Christ and it is now no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’. Whatever today may hold for you, and the week ahead, whatever its challenges and burdens, we pray that you may be given grace to be faithful to your baptismal calling to live under the sign of Christ’s cross and in his name, by the power of his Spirit, to shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father.

You will be aware that in the past week, the number of daily new coronavirus cases has begun to rise again in an alarming way and that the R-number is once again above 1. As a result, last week the government introduced new restrictions on social gatherings, now known for shorthand as ‘the rule of 6’. This week’s Ad Clerum attempts to provide some clarity about what this new restriction does and does not mean for church life.

1. The Consecration of as However, before addressing those issues, there is one other important update to provide, relating to Canon Sophie’s long-awaited consecration. As you know, this is now scheduled to take place at on Monday 21 September at 11.00am – just one week from now. Sadly, the service itself is of course restricted to just 30 attendees including the Minister staff. However, we are really delighted that so many have expressed their intention to join in by watching the livestream and supporting Canon Sophie in prayer on the day. The livestream will be available from 11am until 12.30pm (approx) at www.YorkMinster.org/Whats- On Sophie is extremely grateful for the kind messages of encouragement that she has received, and we hope to be able to publicise the web-link as soon as it is available. If at all possible, please do arrange your day next Monday to join us live: we are of course very keen to make the occasion as much of a big Diocesan family celebration as we can, despite the Covid-19 restrictions. We are assured that the Order of Service will be available on the York Minster website on the day, so people can join in from home. In addition, Canon Sophie would love to have a collection of ‘consecration selfies’ to collect up after the event as an indication of who was ‘there’ and a symbol of the family of God ‘gathered’. Ideally this would be a picture of your face taken on a phone camera while watching the livestream of the Consecration Service on the day; but if you prefer it could simply be a picture of you and anyone with whom you watched the service, even after the event. Please send your ‘consecration selfie’ (ideally as a JPEG file) to Dominique Horsfield (Canon Sophie’s PA) at [email protected] -- and please do spread the word in your congregation, chaplaincy, family or network, so that the greatest possible number of our Diocesan family can join in. 2. The Rule of Six Understandably, church leaders, lay and ordained, are concerned about the implications of the restrictions announced by the Government last week, which come into force today. This restriction is, of course, to be taken very seriously – but it’s key aim is to limit ‘social interaction’ (that is, the ways people congregate socially, outside work or other organised activity). It is clear, for example, that public worship can continue as before. You can find here a statement by the Bishop of London to the effect that ‘places of worship can still hold more than six people in total, despite the new restrictions on gatherings, and … public worship can continue’. However, we are required not to visit (that is, to arrive at) our churches in groups of more than six people, and not to interact during or after worship in groups of more than six people. (Section 3 of the government guidance here) Secondly, it is our understanding that Section 2 of that same revised government guidance means that church meetings (eg,PCCs, APMs and APCMs) can still go ahead, and that a range of other community and church activities in our halls and other premises can also still continue – such as children’s and youth activities. It goes without saying, of course, that all the earlier guidance about hand- washing, social-distancing, cleaning and risk assessments remains in place. Do please continue to exercise great care to ensure the safety of all who enter our churches and church halls.

Once again, thank you for the extraordinary investment of time and effort, to say nothing of emotional energy, you are investing in getting this right. The complete lockdown earlier in the year was of course costly in other ways, but in one respect it was very simple and we all knew where we were. Now, of course, we are having to adjust constantly to incremental changes in guidance, with ups and downs, ebbs and flows. The journey out of the pandemic will not be a neat and tidy one, and there will not simply be a gradual easing of restrictions and a gradual return to ‘normal’. Instead, as we are sure you have realised, further restrictions, local and national, are likely to follow in the coming months.

With every blessing

The Rt Revd Dr Canon Sophie Jelley Bishop-designate of Doncaster