Why the Church's Commemoration of the First Lockdown is Questionable

Follow the initiative of Marie Curie on March 23rd the Church of England is to commemorate the anniversary of first UK lockdown. Now, on one level there is nothing wrong with this and it contains poignancy. The tragedy of the past year must not be understated and the bravery of those on the frontline cannot be underestimated. Covid19 has dealt a terrible blow to our nation. 

Nevertheless the Anglican Church is more than just another agency or charity. The Church occupies the world, public space, in a manner that needs careful consideration.  What she says or doesn't say matters. For the problem with this "day of reflection" is that it avoids any call to acknowledge and question in the name of justice the damage done by lockdowns. It assumes that these measures were a necessary evil. 

Even a supposed neutral stance is a stance, a positioning.  

It is one of the paradoxes of the modern Anglican Church that she seems very evangelistic to "talk up" certain injustices but remains quiet on others.  Progressive causes get her all fired up while the less fashionable concerns and injustices are never brought to the fore.

For me this reinforces my suspicion that the official Church has an unspoken policy of complete passivity to government lockdowns. The measures are never questioned. This therefore presents the wider damage of the three lockdowns as collateral, as if they were an unfortunate side effect. 

• Does the Church speak up for those lives have been decimated by poverty, isolation, mental breakdown? How is she a mother to them?  
• Who speaks for small businesses on the edge of bankruptcy because of lockdown? Does the Church voice any concern or does she tell us that the millions now unemployed and broke are a justified? For an organisation whose founder was a carpenter and his apostles fishermen this seems an incredible omission. 
• Who speaks for our rights and liberties? What did the Church think when former Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption said that a legal convention ceases to be convention once it is broken?  For an Church that tooth and nail for liberty in the Medieval past this body now seems somewhat silent.  Now we are led to believe that our human right are the total gift of the State not there by divine origin. 
• Are the vast numbers of kids exhibiting depression and anxiety just an unfortunate cost to the pandemic? Is the fact that A&Es around the country are reporting that they are seeing children as young as eight self-harming of no concern to the Church?  This should shock us to the core.

The official Church could get angry on the behalf of the victims of lockdowns. Would this not be social justice par excellence? 

Somehow, I wouldn't be holding my breath on that one. 

( Here is Lord Sumption almost one year ago warning us of the consequences of lockdowns.  In the balance of things it remains disappointing that no senior leader in the Church has spoken like this. )