It sounds like the build-up to an illegal rave. Invitations are passed by word of mouth to trusted people. Minimal information – time, directions – is quietly given with pleas for discretion. Once everyone is assembled in a barn on a remote farm – “away from prying eyes,” says the organiser – it begins.
This is no rave, but an English church service under lockdown, and the organiser is a Protestant pastor. The Christians who will gather illegally in the west of England on Sunday morning – as they have for the past two Sundays – will pray, read from the scriptures, sing hymns and listen to a sermon.
“We’ve been holding clandestine services since this lockdown began,” the pastor told the Observer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It feels weird for us to act this way. People have said it feels more like an underground church in China.
“The fact that we have to sneak around to worship God,...
Where are they? I want to assemble with those willing to obey God and not men. At prayer meeting last week (a rare thing to find) I asked what happens if lock down comes again and churches close? Will we meet? Blank looks all round. I'm serious. Where are they in Aus. Who's meeting and preparing the lambs for the time at hand. WAKE UP. Pray for the opening of the eyes. I have obeyed Caesar so far this year, but the times we are in need us to pray and meet just as the early Church, and our Chinese brethren. This is a fear problem , fear God or man!
God fearing people don't go looking for trouble but godless people instigate it by targeting them. The Pastor was right when he said: “as Christians, we want to be the best citizens we can. We don’t want to be disobedient, but we’re being forced into a position where we either have to go with our religious convictions or go against our consciences and beliefs and submit to the state. That’s the situation we’re in.”
I'd say any excuse is a good one, Brother Wayfarer. COVID is handy but soon could come BLM/CRT rationale that will label us all supremacists of some sort unless we attend an approved liberal congregation. Freedom of Religion will look like the Three Self Churches in China, and those aren't faring well now.
I think in the US , churches in lock down states will pray that lawyers will take on the roll of combatants against the state to keep their church open Not wanting to sound alarmist, but Biden will lock down communities to stop the spread of Covid. He’ll have someone hand him a map of blue, red states and go from there. But here’s an alternative thought- how about, everyone ends up with Covid . And in truth, that’s probably the only way the virus diminishes its efficiency.
Scots who refused to accept the prelates of the Anglican Church that were being forced upon them did this as well, meeting in moors or in remote barns. The Crown dispatched Graham of Claverhouse to bring these traitors to heel. The result was a string of what we would today call war crimes against humanity by Claverhouse and his band.
Certainly the English had their own troubles that pushed Non-conformists to go to the undeveloped American colonies.
And as history repeats itself, here we are again. Such is the life of those in Christ. Romans 8.
This is a fascinating article published in what is a Leftist paper (the Guardian and its Sunday sister, the Observer). It was actually quite fair and a very full account. It is good to see that at last there is some resistance to the nonsense that is going on. When the lockdown in England finishes on Wednesday December 2nd, the churches may resume public services again, those in Wales have already resumed, and those in Scotland are at present continuing but the ones in Northern Ireland must now close down for a short sharp lockdown of 2 weeks from November 27th. MPs in the U.K. (and England) Parliament are getting more annoyed with these restrictions, as are some in the devolved assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Congregational singing, and certain aspects of church life are still banned or severely restricted, and mask wearing is still compulsory, and no sign of when these are going to be removed.
Paul Fountain | 1/30/2009
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