Public Protest in a Pandemic

 It seems that Public Protest is illegal under the current lockdown rules. So people have been defying the rules for a variety of reasons. Some are against lockdown, some are vaccination deniers or conspiracy theorists, others such as the peaceful turnout by women at Clapham Common, were motivated by the sense of how dangerous it is for women on our streets, following the murder of Sarah Everard.

Whether small or large turnouts of large gatherings of people for protest or commemoration are inevitably a vector for transmission of the virus, and people appear to be prepared to break the law for their cause, however unrepresentative it is.

The protests against the terms of the Police and Crime Bill going through Parliament at the moment in Bristol were a case in point. Even the peaceful parts of that protest were against the law, but the case of where people determined to use that cause as an opportunity for violence and attacks on the Police and Property are well known, which is why the government seem to want to criminalize any form of protest, which has not been approved by local authorities or police.

People are calling the terms of the proposed legislation as a challenge to their freedoms of free speech, of the right to assemble for a protest, and a way of introducing a "Police State". I haven't studied the proposals in any detail, but it seems to me that the way to "kill the bill" the mantra of Saturdays protesters is by exercising their right to lobby their MP's to vote against it. In other words, following the democratic process, including peaceful protest, when it is safe to do so, not in the middle of a pandemic.

Surely we all feel a grievance sometimes when restrictions are imposed on our freedom to do just as we like, but we have a responsibility to observe those restrictions for the protection of ourselves and others. We have a duty of care for each others, and we disregard this at our and others peril. Surely the figures of deaths so far and those hospitalised with severe, life affecting long term conditions should be evidence enough for us to stick to the lawful pursuits, but so many don't see it that way.

I could ask whatever happened to the "British Commons ense and stoicism"? perhaps it is a well meaning myth and the "Spirit of the Blitz" never existed?

I just pray that the population at large will see sense and stop these sort of protests until it is safe to do so, legally and for the right reasons. 

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is one of the 10 Commandments.  I am particularly drawn to the extended text of the Prayer Book commandment:

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it”.

It is obvious that we work in some way or other and welcome a day of rest on the Sabbath, although if you are in ministry of any sort, including the Choir, the Sabbath may not feel like a day of rest, as believe it or not, those working to prepare for worship will have worked hard to prepare it beforehand, rather than just playing it off the cuff and hoping for the best.

For many of us these words  will be well outside our comfort zone. For instance, how many of us have a man-servant or maid-servant (I wish) and unless we are farmers, we don’t have many cattle in Urban, Belvedere (Unless you know different of course).  But the sentence I want to concentrate on is “the stranger that is within they gates”.

I suspect that many of us will take this to mean someone we don’t know, someone newly arrived in our neighbourhood, someone perhaps of a different racial, ethnic, religious or cultural background to ours, but I think that that conclusion is pretty stereo typed. 

If you look around Church (when we are in it) and we meet each other wearing masks and socially distanced, we will recognise each other if we know each other well enough, even by sight, even if we have forgotten, for a moment or two, their name.   But are we kidding ourselves, do we really know them well?

No doubt we think that we  are heeding that other greatest commandment about “loving our neighbour as ourself” but how can we truly obey  that essential second greatest commandment if  we don’t really know them?

 If we haven’t made the time to speak to them, to socialise with them or to have shared our lives with them wider than the short meeting in Church on a Sunday, if we have not engaged enough to know their full back story, about them and their family and in return, shared our story with them.

Without that sort of engagement how can we truly say that we are obeying the commandment?

Of course, not everyone feels confident to engage in the way described, there might be inhibitions about meeting people in that way. That  famous “British Reserve” even “Stiff Upper Lip” might be getting in the way of our being truly able to assent to the commandment,  And of course, we are hesitant to invade peoples personal privacy or space, or perhaps unsure of ourselves, not wanting to be that “nosy neighbour” poking their nose in where not wanted, not wanting to be rebuffed, not wanting to be embarrassed.

But if we hesitate to commit to extend our network of fellowship in Christ, perhaps those I write off, share most of those same traits or inhibitions, perhaps waiting for the other to hold out the hand or breaking the ice and offering the hand of Christ in welcome, love and friendship and fellowship that we need to both build our gathered community of God, but also in building his Kingdom.

Might I suggest something quite obvious?   The idea of the “stranger within our Gates” goes back to that “Ministry of Welcome” that is portrayed in the commandment.  It is an invitation for us to look beyond ourselves, to see each other, including the “stranger” as someone created in God’s image as we are, someone who we need to invite into our community, our lives, not just in a shared communal act of worship (though that is central to what we do and who we are as people of God), but as friends, as family, as a fellow member of God’s people, just like us, with all or flaws, strengths and weaknesses and by doing this, we build the Body of Christ, here in Belvedere  and his Kingdom wider in the world.  I for one know I have more to do in this respect.

 

How about you?