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FATHER KEVIN, Lockdown Day 70

How has Coved-19 affected you and your life?
I live with my wife and two children in a Vicarage which has a large garden. We feel very lucky to have so much space during the lockdown. The children are home schooling and we try to structure our day so we can spend time doing things together too.

The church building is at the bottom of our garden. Lockdown began for us with the suspension of public worship and then the closing of the church building. We have been live-streaming Mass from the church building each weekday at noon and on Sundays, something I share with my colleague at our sister church. It means we have to prepare four sermons each week!

The hardest thing though has been pastoral work particularly when someone is dying or has died. We try to keep in contact with people as much as possible by phone and email but nothing can replace being physically present with someone when they are in need.

It has been amazing to see how neighbours have reacted with such thoughtfulness, care to each other- the support in some places has been truly wonderful – and I hope in this way the pandemic has brought us closer together and helped us to reassess our priorities. I have loved the reduction in pollution and noise in London.

I miss seeing people – family, friends, parishioners- and communal worship with its hymn singing and music.I will miss our church fete this year which is a very happy occasion for the whole community and bumping into people I haven’t seen for a long while. This has been a time for me to learn again spiritually a gratitude and appreciation for so much that is easily taken for granted.