Resumption of sung services in cathedrals

[Quilisma]

Do the boarders have to stay on site - no visits home - in order to meet the criteria?

I think that may be the case, but I have no idea what the details of the current guidelines are. They are available somewhere online for everyone's perusal. Certainly it has been common for many of the more local choir parents to attend services regularly and perhaps very briefly see their children afterwards, but obviously that can't happen at the moment, and presumably it would be the same whether or not they were continuing to sing services: at least the fact that services are being streamed helps them remotely keep in touch with their families. We're only in the third day of lockdown choir activities so far, but the choristers are dealing with it all admirably well, and for the lay clerks there's not a particularly huge difference from how things were just before Half Term, except that now there is no adjournment option!

[cat]

Really?! If you are not live-streaming or broadcasting it is not allowed? Please, can you direct me to the government regulations on this? I would appreciate it.

It'll be this part of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020:

(5)A person who is responsible for a place of worship must ensure that, during the emergency period, the place of worship is closed, except for uses permitted in paragraph (6).
(6)A place of worship may be used— (a)for funerals, (b)to broadcast an act of worship, whether over the internet or as part of a radio or television broadcast, or (c)to provide essential voluntary services or urgent public support services (including the provision of food banks or other support for the homeless or vulnerable people, blood donation sessions or support in an emergency).

The following law is an example of how last-minute things are:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1242/contents/made

[Quilisma]

Really?! If you are not live-streaming or broadcasting it is not allowed? Please, can you direct me to the government regulations on this? I would appreciate it.

I haven't seen this bit of the guidance, I'm afraid, but I suspect what it means is that unless streaming/broadcasting option is not possible it should be used, both to justify to the sceptics that there is a "purpose" in musicians continuing to be involved, and to mitigate the hugely unfortunate situation whereby members of the public are currently not permitted to attend services in person. (I think college chapels are allowed to remain open, strictly for resident members of college only, if the college so decides, and are not obliged to stream/broadcast everything.)

[Simon Biazeck]

Thanks!

[Quilisma]

It'll be this part of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020:

(5)A person who is responsible for a place of worship must ensure that, during the emergency period, the place of worship is closed, except for uses permitted in paragraph (6).
(6)A place of worship may be used— (a)for funerals, (b)to broadcast an act of worship, whether over the internet or as part of a radio or television broadcast, or (c)to provide essential voluntary services or urgent public support services (including the provision of food banks or other support for the homeless or vulnerable people, blood donation sessions or support in an emergency).

The following law is an example of how last-minute things are:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/.../contents/made

Thanks, that is indeed the relevant passage.

[Simon Biazeck]

It'll be this part of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020:

(5)A person who is responsible for a place of worship must ensure that, during the emergency period, the place of worship is closed, except for uses permitted in paragraph (6).
(6)A place of worship may be used— (a)for funerals, (b)to broadcast an act of worship, whether over the internet or as part of a radio or television broadcast or (c)to provide essential voluntary services or urgent public support services (including the provision of food banks or other support for the homeless or vulnerable people, blood donation sessions or support in an emergency).

The following law is an example of how last-minute things are:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/.../contents/made

Thanks!

[Miles Coverdale]

Yes, indeed, + Hereford - well, sort of. Have just had an email from there alerting to their schedule.

Well, I did say weekdays. Each cathedral is, I imagine, doing what it can in the circumstances, which will of course vary from one place to another.

[Quilisma]

Ely is doing evensong on weekdays as well as morning Eucharist and evensong on Sundays. This week is unusual because today and tomorrow are BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcasts so are not being livestreamed on YouTube (today's will finally be broadcast in January; tomorrow is live). As yesterday's evensong was due to be more or less identical to tomorrow's broadcast, but would have had to be livestreamed, it was decided to have a rehearsal for tomorrow's broadcast instead rather than broadcasting virtually the same service twice. So in practice our full lockdown routine of YouTube livestreams begins on Thursday (which, unusually, will be boys only this week, because the lay clerks are needed for both broadcasts, and normally here Tuesday is boys only and Wednesday is girls only)...