1/9 For those who asked me my view: I have read accusations that #closing churches is ' #cowardice'. That #clergy are #keyworkers & should be in our #churches #opening them up for people & our #leaders are 'wrong' in their approach. I respectfully disagree @chelmsdio @ChurchTimes

2/9 Considering different ministry #contexts before concluding, the best place for #clergy is in church might serve us better. For some: which church? Many have multiples, some none. Many churches only still operate as #worship centres because of #lay ministry alongside clergy.

3/9 Much of that #lay ministry comes from the over #70s who I hope won't valiantly decide to put themselves at #risk because they fear being called #cowards. Our leaders protected us & our congregations from misplaced heroism of the kind that fills hospitals & #kills parishioners

4/9 I am grateful. I do not expect all to agree with me, but flinging about totemic terms like 'cowardice' right around #VEDay75 when the virus is already being presented in the media & by Govt as a battle is reckless. You cannot grapple with a virus in heroic hand-to-hand combat

5/9 We're not ' #hiding' from a #foe we are equipped to fight. We are keeping out of the way of those who *are* equipped for the flesh & blood #struggle & not becoming carriers. Put bluntly, I don't want to go gung ho & get folk infected so I can feel #heroic. It's not about me.

6/9 I want, like Jesus, to be able to say 'I have not lost any of those you gave me.' Some have died - but none because of me, I pray. I am willing to bear the horrible grief of losing even physical communion for the sake of a love that values & protects the vulnerable as Christ.

7/9 It is tempting to want the #Church to share in the #praise & heroic imagery heaped upon the #NHS but maybe what we're called to exercise is not #heroism for the praise of human beings but a quieter #humility that allows itself to be mocked, even misunderstood, for love's sake

8/9 It is perhaps in this #humility that our #leaders struggle & bow their heads beneath a lash of scorn from within & without. Because our most vulnerable are precious. Because 'thou shalt not kill' matters institutionally as well as individually. B/c we are one another's keeper

9/9 We do not yet fully have a language for love expressed through distance, or faith through precaution, or presence through absence (the mystics help). But I'm reminded of the Methodist Covenant prayer, 'let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee...' More in next thread