Thankfully the fundraising thermometers you used to see quite frequently outside churches, revealing how far away the congregation of St Shoddy's was from plugging the leaks in the roof, seem to be much rarer now. Over recent days I've felt rather like putting one of my own outside the church in Swanvale Halt, detailing the latest local COVID infection rate, as I have checked the government website daily to see how things are going. On Sunday we ticked above our self-defined trigger point of 500 cases per 100,000 population average across the seven Medium Layer Super Output Areas that (in my opinion, playing epidemiologist as I am apparently supposed to do) form the Hornington 'catchment area'. The PCC voted to close yesterday, and today the Bishop confirmed the decision.
I didn't really feel the relief I expected given how tense I have been since it became clear that this was on the cards. I think this has been because the last few services in the church have had such a warm and devout atmosphere, possibly due to people being aware that this was something they valued and which was probably about to be denied to them. That's a useful sensation which I'm trying to encourage!
Ironically yesterday and today the figures slipped back to 498. Perhaps we have hit a peak after all ... but I'll need more data before I believe that.
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