Churches Not Locking Down During The New Wave Of Covid

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Comments

  • (((Chastmastr))) I hope your concerns are addressed.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    @Simon Toad, except for actually escorting people to their seats, that sounds like the weekend procedures in most of the Catholic parishes in the ACT and surrounding areas, although some have queue spacing marked in aisles for communion, rather than the priest walking up the aisle. From experience, the priest distributing communion is much less movement and more peaceful.
    @WormInTheGrass, what does ACT stand for and where is it?

    @ChastMastr that's a good letter. It would be great to know if you get a. a reply and b. a real one rather than an administrator's self-satisfied bland guff. But what does NIH stand for.

  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Well done, @ChastMastr!
  • "National Institute of Health.
    It's an American Health (stats?) body. Most importantly they produce a graphics program, that has some of the simpleness of Paint and some of the abilities of Photoshop/Gimp (and is easy to use for scientific purposes) but they do other stuff on the side like pandemic advice, disease research and monitoring, drugs and vacine trials, etc...

    NIH Wiki
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    @jay_emm Thank you.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    Enoch wrote: »
    @Simon Toad, except for actually escorting people to their seats, that sounds like the weekend procedures in most of the Catholic parishes in the ACT and surrounding areas, although some have queue spacing marked in aisles for communion, rather than the priest walking up the aisle. From experience, the priest distributing communion is much less movement and more peaceful.
    @WormInTheGrass, what does ACT stand for and where is it?
    I assume @Simon Toad means the Australian Capital Territory.

    A very good letter, @ChastMastr. I’ll be interested to hear the response—and I hope there is one.

  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    I agree; well expressed @ChastMastr and I'll also be interested to hear about a response.
  • Excellent letter, @ChastMastr. Yes, ACT is the Australian Capital Territory, which was plonked in the middle of south-eastern New South Wales after Federation 120 years ago. It it a slightly odd shape as the legislation creating it insisted it should have its own water catchment. The Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn covers a rather larger geographic area.
  • Good heavens. Wow. The bishop called me unexpectedly and we spoke for an hour on both my concerns and other things.

    1. First, he's awesome, and God bless him. The issue that kept him (or his assistant, who is his wife) from calling or letting me know he could not was quite understandable now that I know.

    2. Second, he's been monitoring both the Covid news and the ways the churches in his diocese are handling things--which are, despite the language of the diocesan letter giving guidance, much stricter that things have sounded, and in various cases he's had to put his foot down. I am much relieved. He is definitely taking this seriously. Cubby and I will still not be going to church and probably forgoing the lay Eucharistic minister for safety reasons until we have the vaccine, but I am very glad to hear how this is being managed.

    And that's it! :) <3
  • Result!

    Glad to hear you've at least been contacted, and had the situation explained from the Bishop's POV...difficult times for them, too, of course.
  • Result!
  • So glad for a productive conversation, @ChastMastr, and that you were really listened to!
  • Well done, @ChastMastr. And I bet in getting the Diocese to address your concerns you will have helped clarify for the Bishop and many others the issues involved and how people feel about them.
  • Well @ChastMastr , I appear to have something in my eye.
    Result
    Pastorally superb.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Really pleasing all round, very well done!
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    Well done @ChastMastr. It's even possible that by taking it up with him, you may have given him more power to his elbow. He can now tell those of his clergy that are a bit gung-ho that he's been getting restless feedback from people in the diocese.

    And thank you @Nick Tamen and @WormInTheGrass. I wasn't clear which country @WormInTheGrass you per posting from, and even if I had known you were in Australia, probably would not have guessed that ACT was an abbreviation for Canberra.

  • It isn’t. ACT is the Australian Capital Territory wherein lies the city of Canberra and sundry other small settlements (Tharwa and Top Naas spring to mind). It is embedded in the southern part of New South Wales.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Not really an abbreviation for Canberra, but the name of the territory where Canberra is situated - much like District of Columbia. The placement of the capital city for the new federation was a matter of considerable debate. Sydney was of course the first European settlement in Australia, but after the gold rush of the 1850s the small township of Melbourne boomed in both size and wealth (although Sydney remained the larger). A compromise was eventually reached. NSW ceded land to be the territory for the new federal capital, but it had to be at least 100 or 120 miles from Sydney (forgotten the precise distance). The decision took a few years after federation, then there was the competition for the design of the city-to-be, the building and so forth. In the meantime, the federal parliament met in Melbourne and that was also the principal seat of the the new High Court. Parliament moved to Canberra in 1927, but it was not until 1980 that the High Court followed. So there's much more than you expected to be told.

    As to lockdown, all Anglican churches the Northern Region of the Sydney diocese have been closed by the Archbishop following a new covid outbreak in the northern beach suburb of Avalon. In round terms, that's 25 km east to west and probably 50 km south to north - natural boundaries being the Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean in the east, Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River to the south and the Hawkesbury River along the north, with around 65 churches. Probably overkill, but better to be proactive and safe.
  • Intererestingly one of the proposed sites for the National Capital was Woodstock, a village in Central Western NSW; luckily pipped at the post by the then Canberry Plains district.

    Better stop here before either a purgatorial Host or a Canberran lawmaker pounces..😇
  • Gee D wrote: »
    Not really an abbreviation for Canberra, but the name of the territory where Canberra is situated - much like District of Columbia.
    Except that the City of Washington and the District of Columbia have, since 1871, been coterminous and had a unified government.

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    As is indeed the political position here, with but the one government for the entire Territory. Orfeo would be better on the name the inhabitants give to the closely settled area as opposed to the Territory as a whole. As an outsider, I'd call the city and suburbs "Canberra" and the whole area, including the farming and National Park areas as "the Territory".
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Very pleased to read this update @ChastMastr .
  • Gee D wrote: »
    As to lockdown, all Anglican churches the Northern Region of the Sydney diocese have been closed by the Archbishop following a new covid outbreak in the northern beach suburb of Avalon. In round terms, that's 25 km east to west and probably 50 km south to north - natural boundaries being the Tasman Sea/Pacific Ocean in the east, Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River to the south and the Hawkesbury River along the north, with around 65 churches. Probably overkill, but better to be proactive and safe.

    It's probably too late to dynamite the bridges, huh...

  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    Sojourner wrote: »
    Intererestingly one of the proposed sites for the National Capital was Woodstock, a village in Central Western NSW; luckily pipped at the post by the then Canberry Plains district.

    Better stop here before either a purgatorial Host or a Canberran lawmaker pounces..😇

    Did you have anyone in particular in mind?...
    Gee D wrote: »
    As is indeed the political position here, with but the one government for the entire Territory. Orfeo would be better on the name the inhabitants give to the closely settled area as opposed to the Territory as a whole. As an outsider, I'd call the city and suburbs "Canberra" and the whole area, including the farming and National Park areas as "the Territory".

    Well yeah, basically. I mean, context would determine what terminology I was using. If I'm talking about the border it's the ACT border. It's the ACT government and legislative assembly. 'Canberra' is not a jurisdictional entity, it's a place.

    I don't recall whether we've ever had a city council of any sort. I'm not sure we have. It took me years to understand that "Sydney" in fact has a wealth of cities inside it, in terms of governance.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    Too late Simon Toad - and of limited utility as the western boundary of the region is a land one!

    Orfeo - my memory is that there has never been a municipal government for any of the city area. To start with, the numbers overall would not have justified separate organisations, and the proportion of "city" to "country" nowhere near as extreme as now. Now of course the numbers of non-city dwellers are so small as to make it non-economic.
  • Prior to self-government, Canberra was under the control of a number of Commonwealth bureaucratic bodies, culminating in the National Capital Development Commission. The ACT Legislative Assembly has been described by many critics as a glorified city council. Indeed since some NSW metropolitan councils have been amalgamated they serve almost as many people as the ACT Government.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    And have larger budgets, all managed by part-time councillors
  • Pastor Rick Warren is speaking sense, and evidently has been for months.

    "Popular Evangelical Pastor: Coronavirus Rules Aren't Oppressing Christians" (HuffPost, via Yahoo).
  • Good for him.
    :smile:
  • Just saw a local protestant church in our town held a Christmas Eve service and no one came except the few people who took part in leading the service.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    And have larger budgets, all managed by part-time councillors

    Who don't have to manage many of the issues that ACT Ministers have to manage, because they have the NSW government above them doing that.
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