Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Online and In-person Communal Worship: Covid-19 Restrictions

Thursday 17 June 2021 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Church of England encourages both in-person and online communal worship as restrictions lift.
  • Training has been provided to thousands of clergy to facilitate both forms of worship.
  • The Church recognizes the importance of communal worship for many and aims to include online participants.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Martin Vickers Con Brigg and Immingham
Religion & Faith
Context

As covid-19 restrictions are lifted, there is a need to understand the Church of England's stance on supporting both online and in-person communal worship.

Question

Whether the Church of England plans to support online and in-person communal worship as covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

Answer from Andrew Selous

The Church of England is strongly encouraging churches to support both in-person and online communal worship, and training has been given to thousands of clergy to enable this. It is up to local churches to decide how best to do this.

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Q2 Martin Vickers Con Brigg and Immingham
Religion & Faith
Context

The Church's encouragement of both online and in-person worship raises concerns for those who can only participate through home communion.

Question

I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. It is welcome that the Church is encouraging this both online and in-person. For those housebound, who perhaps in the past have only received home communion, to be able to participate more is very welcome, but nothing can actually replace the fellowship of being a part of a real-life congregation. Can he give an absolute assurance that no barriers will be put in the way of achieving that?

Answer from Andrew Selous

I could not agree with my hon. Friend more, and I can give him a complete assurance that the Church of England fully recognises the importance that so many people attach to worshipping communally together in church. At the same time, we are very keen not to lose those who join us online, and we hope we will be able to get to know many of our new online attendees as soon as possible in due course.

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