My despair over Dominic Cummings and lockdown double standards – Bishop of Ripon

The trouble with sound-bites is that they can be quoted out of context, and the deeper issues ignored because they are in the ‘too hard’ basket.

Following the Prime Minister’s appearance at the Covid-19 daily briefing last Sunday evening, I popped onto Twitter to see what the response was. ‘Fairly annoyed’ would be a diplomatic summary of what I saw.

I decided to contribute, and commented on a tweet from someone I know who was very upset at what the Prime Minister had said in defence of a certain official who had made a trip to Durham during the period of what we all thought was total lockdown.

I said this: “Integrity, trust and leadership were never there; just a driven misguided ideology of power that has total disregard for the most weak and vulnerable, and those who work to protect and care for us for relatively low pay.”

A few moments later, as the comments started to roll in, I tweeted again: “My parents live in Durham, an hour away from where we live.

“My father finished radiotherapy treatment just before lockdown.

“I’ve missed his birthday, Mothering Sunday and countless other catch-ups that would have happened. And that’s a fraction of a story compared with 
others.”

It was that tweet from a personal perspective which received far more attention than the one that challenged the content of the Prime Minister’s daily briefing appearance.

What has struck me in recent weeks are the personal stories of loss, bereavement, fear and compassion. Lives that have been changed, and while some have found positives in the lockdown, for many the experience has been harrowing.

Speaking of stories, many Christians have just celebrated the feast of the Ascension (the bit where Jesus seems to go away into the clouds), which forms a bridge between Easter Day and Pentecost: the arrival of the Holy Spirit to give us all a firm nudge to get on with the work of growing God’s Kingdom.

Regardless of your faith perspective, there is something to be said for acknowledging the deeper rhythms and stories that tell us about what it might mean to be human.

Jesus may have told me to love my neighbour but he also challenged me to pray for my enemy. So any foray into the so-called political realm must be done with this in mind, and even more so for someone in Church leadership.

I didn’t post those tweets lightly, I did so because my own personal story and the stories of so many I have heard in recent weeks has been seriously undermined by the behaviour of individuals who set a clear policy and who I expected to model that in their own lives.

We do well to remember that this particular lockdown policy has been for the sake of public health, and it is so often those who are the most weak and vulnerable who pay the highest cost.

I would dearly love to visit my parents, but I daren’t because my father’s health is still firmly in the ‘at risk’ category.

The greatest gift I can give my parents is to stay away, not get into my car and bring whatever exposure I may have had to the virus with me.

There’s a cost in that, and for some dealing with personal and family issues it may raise all manner of anxieties and challenges.

I don’t doubt that for one minute.

When I think of that feast day I mentioned earlier, I remember a particular encounter I had with a bishop on that day in the mid-1980s.

It was at a church service, and that bishop was the then Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins. He was a man who ventured into political debate, and had firm words to say about all political parties.

Speaking truth to power is an important aspect of my role as a bishop, and I do that aware of the potential to annoy and even offend.

When I became a bishop in New Zealand, my predecessor said to me that leadership was a bit like climbing a mountain: the higher you go the more scenic the views, but the more likely to attract complex weather systems.

Perhaps that is true of political life also?

The Right Reverend Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is the Bishop of Ripon.

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James Mitchinson