Catholic Union Deputy Director, James Somerville-Meikle, writes:
Many times during the Easter Triduum this year, I found myself thinking back to where we were three years ago. Our churches were closed and the great feast of Easter had to be celebrated over Zoom. Thank God those dark days are in the past.
Earlier this week, I met Lord Greenhalgh who was Local Government Minister during the pandemic; a brief which included faith groups. He spoke candidly about the difficult conversations he had with others in Government at the time about the decision to close places of worship.
He also said that the pandemic had shown just how important faith groups are to the communities they serve; often being able to reach people most in need.
This recognition was partly behind the decision to award over £6.6 million from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund to 39 Catholic churches in England. The success of the Fund, which was set up during Covid, was celebrated at an event in Parliament on Wednesday.
Next week, we are expecting the long-awaited report from the Government’s Faith Engagement Review. This will give us a better sense of the lessons that the Government needs to learn on faith engagement in the wake of the pandemic. Whether they are prepared to listen or not is another matter.