Tuesday was Candlemas Day, which we would normally celebrate at Swanvale Halt by blessing candles and having a candlelit procession around the church. None of that this year, of course, but I live-streamed a short devotion for the day with lots of candles and the Office Hymn 'Quod Chorus Vatum' which I had spent well over an hour on Sunday practising having been aware I was getting it wrong for ten years. I did get it right; after the first stanza, anyway, which was all over the place.
Later in the evening the PCC convened to consider whether to reopen for public worship. The COVID infection rates in the seven statistical output areas around Hornington had fallen from over 500 per 100,000 people when we closed to 139 the day before, and the vaccination programme advances apace here as everywhere. However people had obviously been a little unsettled by the stories of mass-testing for the new version of the virus in Woking, and while the figures dropped suddenly in the middle of January for the last week the decline has been very slow. Seeing how readily the rates go up and down we were far from confident that further deceleration was inevitable and so decided, in the end, to keep public worship suspended for at least another fortnight. Not everyone is happy, but I feel more content.
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