Morning all https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😎" title="Lächelndes Gesicht mit Sonnenbrille" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht mit Sonnenbrille">
@KtTup here https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👍" title="Thumbs up" aria-label="Emoji: Thumbs up">

D&J been having tricky conversations around Church buildings re-opening...

1 of us is an incumbent, pulled in many different directions
1 of us a former incumbent
1 of us (more) repeatedly hurt by Church & building accessibility

1/

Our conversation has been wide ranging as you can imagine!

If non-essential shops, & schools, can open - why not Church Buildings? (ChB)

If not ChB then neither should non-ess shops/schools...

How can a Parish building limit prayer in this way, with integrity?

2/

Is there a risk in opening these spaces - to volunteers cleaning/staffing, to visitors, to passers by etc?

Could we be complicit in raising the Transmission Rate, through well-intentioned but ultimately naive actions?

And the ever present thorny & #39;hypocrisy& #39; around access...

3/

Look at the huge effort going into full accessibility for (statistically) healthy able bodied people, to be able to access ChBs & prayer...

But such hand-wringing angst & effort was woefully absent pre-CV19 when Disabled people asked for the equivalent considerations...

4/

At the start of the pseudo Lockdown, we were "in it together"

No-one could
No-one should
For everyone& #39;s good

Then the CofE centre got bored at the margins
The drip-feed of dissent began...

"the margins are the crumbs"
"the margins aren& #39;t Church"
"the margins aren& #39;t real"

5/

CofE lockdown easing began with the privileged
(non isolated, non shielding)
elite...

"we can go back"
"we& #39;ll be ok"
"the people need ChBs"
"it& #39;s not just about me"
"it& #39;s not Mass if it& #39;s not in a ChB"
"the domestic space is too thin"

6/

Soon, the margins will be (temporarily) emptied of its visitors...

Like the beaches at the end of a sunny day, when the evening rain comes...

We, the indigenous, will litter pick when you& #39;ve gone...

We& #39;ll watch the horizon for the next wave...

We& #39;ll await your return

7//end