Churches and Mosques must be aware of Discrimination
Ever since the lockdown I have shopped with my wife in the local Co-operative. I have never had to queue at the door for it is not a supermarket. People do try to keep to the social distancing rules although in a few cases keeping two meters apart is broken. Suddenly other stores are opening, such as Homebase. We had to queue for perhaps ten minutes to get into the store but once inside there was little difficulty in the art of social distancing, as staff supervised our movements.
One place I go however, where I would, even in normal circumstances, be the only visitor is my parish Church. I used to go there weekly on a regular basis so I know. However I cannot enter, since it is forbidden for the Church to open their doors, so I just pray outside to the Blessed Sacrament within. So I can go to the Co-operative and keep apart from about 20 people in a small space, and in Homebase perhaps with around 50 people in a large space, but why is it that Churches cannot just open for private worship where there would be just few individuals? Would the priest really be arrested for endangering the public?
In Alberta over the water, they have just allowed restaurants to open. The guidelines are that only half of the customer capacity can be used. So a restaurant that formerly had 80 customers can have 40. If the restaurant had 200 it could have 100. Moreover 6 people can sit at a table, related or unrelated meaning there could only be distance between of about 12 inches. So good, so far you can say, but this of course will not apply to Churches: they can only have a maximum of 50 people whatever their size, and food {Holy Communion) will not be permitted. And Seikhs, whose worship centres around a meal, are still prohibited whatever the rules for restaurants. So it seems that religion must not be given equal status, indeed it must come last in a progressive modern society.
But at least there are no favourites, mosques, churches, temples, they will all be treated the same.
One place I go however, where I would, even in normal circumstances, be the only visitor is my parish Church. I used to go there weekly on a regular basis so I know. However I cannot enter, since it is forbidden for the Church to open their doors, so I just pray outside to the Blessed Sacrament within. So I can go to the Co-operative and keep apart from about 20 people in a small space, and in Homebase perhaps with around 50 people in a large space, but why is it that Churches cannot just open for private worship where there would be just few individuals? Would the priest really be arrested for endangering the public?
In Alberta over the water, they have just allowed restaurants to open. The guidelines are that only half of the customer capacity can be used. So a restaurant that formerly had 80 customers can have 40. If the restaurant had 200 it could have 100. Moreover 6 people can sit at a table, related or unrelated meaning there could only be distance between of about 12 inches. So good, so far you can say, but this of course will not apply to Churches: they can only have a maximum of 50 people whatever their size, and food {Holy Communion) will not be permitted. And Seikhs, whose worship centres around a meal, are still prohibited whatever the rules for restaurants. So it seems that religion must not be given equal status, indeed it must come last in a progressive modern society.
But at least there are no favourites, mosques, churches, temples, they will all be treated the same.
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