‘Let us disobey’: Churches defy lockdown with secret meetings | The Guardian - Harriet Sherwood, The Observer:
November 22, 2020 - "Invitations are passed by word of mouth to trusted people. Minimal information – time, directions – is quietly given with pleas for discretion. Once everyone is assembled in a barn on a remote farm – 'away from prying eyes,' says the organiser – it begins. This is no rave, but an English church service under lockdown, and the organiser is a Protestant pastor. The Christians who will gather illegally in the west of England on Sunday morning – as they have for the past two Sundays – will pray, read from the scriptures, sing hymns and listen to a sermon.
"'We’ve been holding clandestine services since this lockdown began,' the pastor told the Observer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It feels weird for us to act this way. People have said it feels more like an underground church in China'....
"According to church leaders the Observer has spoken to, an increasing number of congregations are breaking the law in order to worship together, an activity banned under current restrictions. Some are moving to different premises, others meeting covertly in regular church buildings.
"Last Sunday police intervened at the Angel evangelical church in Clerkenwell, north London, after its pastor publicly announced his intention to hold a service. In Gedling, Nottinghamshire, two arrests were made at the Mustard Seed Christian bookshop and cafe after a gathering of up to 50 people last weekend.
"'I never thought I’d say this in Britain, but churches are going underground. These are not isolated cases – and the longer it goes on, more churches will join the movement,' said Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, a conservative evangelical group, and a member of the Church of England’s ruling body, the general synod. Andrew, a minister at a London church, said: 'We’ve carried on as normal [during the current lockdown]. We’re holding a couple of services each Sunday, with about 160 people attending in total. We’ve asked people to be discreet. This is not a stunt we’re pulling, we’re not seeking publicity. It was a big decision – I’ve never practised civil disobedience before'
"The government had overreached itself, he added. 'I don’t believe the government has the authority to tell the church of Jesus Christ that it can’t gather for worship. They have provided no evidence, they just classed us as non-essential. But we believe worship is the most essential thing in life'....
"Regan King, the pastor of the Angel church, plans to hold further services with up to 15 people on Sunday despite police intervening to prevent a larger service last weekend. 'We’re not law breakers, we want to comply with the law as much as possible,' he said. But, he added, there was a 'greater law' than that made by the state....
"The ban on communal worship in England has been challenged by the leaders of the Church of England, the Catholic church and Orthodox Judaism, along with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Pentecostal representatives. They wrote a joint letter to Boris Johnson saying there was 'no scientific justification for the wholesale suspension of public worship'."
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