Here are five things we’ve learnt so far in the coronavirus pandemic.
1. Clarity
That you can spell ‘learnt’ as ‘learned’ or ‘learnt’… Ok, strictly speaking this one doesn’t really count, but having written the word I was then stricken with doubt about how to spell it. And apparently both are fine. It seems the ‘t’ ending used to be more common, but apparently verbs ‘become more regular over time’ says a ‘spelling expert’ online – so more and more people write ‘learned’ it seems. Like ‘spelt’ and ‘spelled’ apparently.
So now you know!
2. Communion
This one’s more serious. One thing that has emerged from the pandemic is that evangelicals have some confusion about Communion. Why? Because the question has arisen over whether it is possible to partake in the Lord’s Supper ‘virtually’ – over Zoom, for example.
And it turns out we don’t have a united view on this. Some evangelicals – Garry Williams of London Theological Seminary (see his article reproduced in this issue of en here), Ian Paul of the Psephizo blog, and Andrew Wilson of New Frontiers – say definitely not, because Communion is a meal that depends on people being physically together. You can’t eat as family, the argument goes, if you’re not together as family.
An alternative view is taken by the Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, in a letter to all his clergy, and by Steve Holmes, an evangelical Baptist. Their arguments are basically that we can – firstly because it’s all about Jesus, first and foremost, not us; secondly because (for Davies at least) Cranmer’s Prayer Book makes allowances for this kind of thing (though others dispute his interpretation of that); and thirdly, because God is not limited by spatial distance.
So plainly this throws up some interesting questions upon which godly people disagree. I suspect it’s a case of Romans 14, so in line with verse 22 there I’m not going to tell you what I think right now. Also I haven’t quite decided myself, to be honest!
3. Communication
Wow, aren’t there just great opportunities for communicating the gospel in this situation! We’ve all been learning how to use Zoom and things like that. We’ve been wrestling with how to livestream, and do videos for YouTube, and what is and isn’t covered by copyright, and so on.
But isn’t it an amazing opportunity? We’ve certainly had more views of our pre-recorded YouTube service videos than the combined membership of all three of our churches – and apparently had viewers in South Africa, Australia, India and Israel. So this must mean most of us as churches were not currently making the most of tech opportunities for getting the gospel out. And we are all just starting to learn and think about it now, which is great.
4. Confusion
And into the valley of death, to paraphrase Alfred Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, rode the Archbishop of Canterbury… Not riding towards guns, as per the charge of the Light Brigade, but riding casually towards doctrinal error as he announced boldly, via Twitter on the 4th of April: ‘Tonight I am praying for those who have died. Loving God, may they know the comfort of your presence.’ Typo? Did he mean to say: ‘I am praying for the families of those who died’? Does he have someone managing his Twitter account who is just doctrinally sloppy? Or is this what he now believes? Words fail me.
5. Conclusions
Of course, early drafts of history usually turn out to be wrong. And maybe we’ll all go back to just how things were. But I doubt it. The effects of Covid-19 will be with us for a long, long time to come yet.
