Of cheese and wine and office parties

This is an email I sent to Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan on Monday 20th December 2021 following the publication of photographs of the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife and number 10 Down Street staff enjoying cheese and wine during lockdown in May 2020 or having a work meeting depending on your view point.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/19/boris-johnson-and-staff-pictured-with-wine-in-downing-street-garden-in-may-2020

Dear Michelle,

 Yesterday I conducted two carol services. The congregations were lower in number than previous years unsurprisingly. Without exception everyone wore a mask unless they were in the choir or reading one of the Bible passages.  We followed the rules, such as they are.

 I would have expected nothing less, as everyone in my churches followed all the rules throughout last year and this year. This meant at Easter 2020 we couldn’t gather for worship. Nor could we gather at Christmas 2020 either. We weren’t happy about this but we followed the rules.

 I conducted several funerals during the lockdown but one sticks in my memory. A lady who had been a church member. She had five adult children and there were numerous grandchildren and other relatives. The funeral took place at a crematorium. A maximum of thirty people at time all socially distanced. All 5 children lived out of the area. After the funeral they were going to drive to a Costa to get takeaway coffee and stand socially distanced in a car park to remember their mother. Horrible. But they followed the rules.

 I know several elderly people who spent Christmas on their own last year. And one of those said to me only last week “Oh well. If we have another lockdown I’m prepared. I’ve got a small chicken in the freezer. It won’t be the same as going to family. But if those are the rules we have to follow them don’t we?”

Yes we must and as Christians we are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbours. One of the ways we can do that is by following the rules put in place to prevent the spread of Omicron / Covid 19 and get vaccinated.

 However, after service yesterday someone said to me “I get annoyed that we follow the rules but they don’t. It’s one rule for them and another for us.” The person was referring to the various Christmas parties held at Downing Street. I agree with that person. I’m annoyed too.

 I am an only child. My elderly parents live 70 miles away. We could not be together last Christmas. But we followed the rules and opened presents together via Zoom.

 Then yesterday evening were the latest revelations of the Prime Minister, his wife and various Downing Street minions enjoying cheese and wine in the garden of Downing Street when the rules clearly prohibited such gatherings. I do not accept for one moment that this was a work meeting. Where were the laptops or iPads? The notebooks? The flipcharts? Once again your Prime Minister considers himself above the rules that the rest of us followed.

 

Regards

 

David Gray

 

Revd David P. Gray LL.B (Hons)

North Wiltshire Methodist Circuit