Welcome back to Farm Street Church

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Restoration of Public Masses in England

Welcome back!  It’s such a joy to be able, finally, to say this.  To see people again and to have a quick chat as visitors are coming in or going out of the church.  The return, however, will be phased and it will be limited at the start.  I want to make clear again that, if you are elderly or are not in good health, or you are shielding someone, you must still stay away.  There is still no obligation to attend Sunday Mass for anyone at this time.  But it is a great delight to begin to celebrate Mass, albeit significantly curtailed and without music, with the Parish again physically present. 

 Much has changed since mid-March.  Our celebration of Mass has been livestreamed.  This is a strange experience to get used to for a priest, not knowing who is on the other side of the camera, and with no responses given. It has been one of a number of paradoxes of the lockdown.  On the one hand our numbers have soared with three times our usual numbers joining us so we are getting to people who are reaching out to the Church, perhaps for the first time or first time for a long time.  And yet Mass in an empty church joined by individuals remotely is not how Mass should be.  However well it has been a substitute for gathering together, it cannot replace our assembling together around the altar in person.  One mark of the Church – ‘ekklesia’ in Greek – is how it is a gathered assembly.   

 There have been other paradoxes.  Many have suffered badly, and we will I’m sure hear more of this as we meet people again over the coming weeks.  It has been a fearful time.  I’ve heard testimonies of loneliness, of troubled home situations, and have heard of a few stories of sickness, bereavement, recovery.  The virus has stricken us physically and also mentally, emotionally, spiritually.  Some people have pointed out how COVID is a ‘leveller’: anyone is prone to it, be you a prime minister or one of our homeless guests.  And yet the paradox is that inequality and injustice has been more pronounced.  The homeless became the only people left on our desolate streets.  Those suffering domestic abuse had nowhere to hide.  And yet good people in our parish came together with others to put themselves on the line to address the situation.  As many felt starved of the Eucharist many also lived the Eucharist out.   

 This week I took part in a conversation with other parish priests in the Diocese about what we can learn from COVID and we listened to each others’ stories.  As we enter a new phase of what Pope Francis is calling “not an era of change but change of an era” I expect to be listening to the stories many have to tell of this strange time.  I hope above all we can learn from this experience and so be ready to welcome those who reach out in these troubled times to a community of faith which strives to live out the Eucharist.   

  Fr Dominic Robinson, SJ