On Good Friday, almost 2000 years ago, both religious and secular authorities attempted to silence Jesus of Nazareth and to do so permanently.
They failed.
Yet through the centuries, they keep trying. Various authorities, both secular and religious, have time and again sought to silence Holy Church, the Body of Christ.
They have failed again and again and again. Jesus lives and reigns, and His Holy Church lives and reigns with him even though it may not seem so at times.
There is little question that those of a totalitarian mindset are trying to use the COVID-19 pandemic to silence the church and drive it out of the public square. The Democrat Mayor of New York even threatened churches that do not comply with his edicts with permanent closure.
Yet in some ways the church is flourishing as it struggles in the midst of this pandemic both to do its part to guard public health and to do its duty for spiritual health. Livestreams of excellent worship abound. The glories of traditional Anglicanism especially are getting new and more widespread audiences.
But the petty totalitarians do not want to abide even that. People, though a very few, are STILL going to churches and even livestreaming their worship? How dare they!
Never mind that multitudes go to grocery stores and liquor stores and use mass transit where there is far greater risk of getting the coronavirus. The use of church buildings for worship is non-essential, don’t you know.
In London, one very small loophole was allowed. If a priest lived on the premises of a church with internal access to the sanctuary, he could use the church building and livestream from it:
Because there are a very few churches in London Diocese where the church is accessible by an internal door from the clergy home, or can be accessed from the clergy home without leaving the curtilage of the church, we will encourage those – and only those – clergy to pray in their churches privately and to consider whether they could live stream their services from within the church building.
Peter Anthony of St. Benet’s Kentish Town was among those utilizing this loophole in a most winsome manner. Fortunately, he recorded the Good Friday liturgy in his church when he still could.
For now he cannot without disobeying authority. After the bleatings of the petty totalitarians, even that loophole has been taken away by the London College of “Bishops,” and that during Holy Week of all times:
…we are asking the limited numbers of you to whom the above applied, to stop all live streaming from your church buildings for the time being.
It feels extremely hard to ask this of you, this week of all weeks. But you will know that some people believe that being in our churches to stream, even if it is accessed by a door in your home, is encouraging others to want to travel to their church, and for others to ask for churches to be open to the public. [GOD FORBID that people would ask for their churches to be open!! – ed.] We would not want to be seen to encourage any laxity in the requirement to stay indoors except for designated reasons, because this will save lives, and protect the NHS.
Thus, with the flimsiest of excuses, the “Bishop” of London seeks all the more to muzzle the church. As if solitary priests livestreaming from their churches endangers lives and the NHS.
Well, apostate religious authorities attempted to use their authority and secular authority to silence Jesus, and that too on dubious pretences. We should not be surprised when apostate “bishops” attempt to silence Holy Church and its faithful priests.
We shall not be silenced. We must not be silenced. For, yes, lives are at stake.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the samesufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. (2 Cor. 1: 5,6)
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