The poor need charity more than Churches

A CHURCH of Ireland website statement spells out the turmoil faced by the Church and charity sectors: “Our finances are now in a very precarious position because of Covid-19. All our sources of income were impacted. Income from car-parking is down 50%. At a stroke, we lost all our tourism and events’ revenue. Although we encouraged people to set up standing orders, congregation collections are down, as is our investment income.”

Aggressive marketing has alienated many people, so that a lot of us pick one to three charities and delete or bin every other begging message.

In the case of the Churches, the internet and worship at home may become the new order of things. Prayer and scripture reading and even taking the sacrament (via the internet) are all achievable remotely.

The concept of paying to worship God in swish buildings with professional clerics is deeply ingrained into the Northern Ireland psyche. Some people like the back-slapping, or handshaking, rituals; with the collection plate, or “church envelopes” assuming a huge importance, too.

We will each have to make hard financial and lifestyle choices in a new time of austerity. Supporting the destitute, or poor, and radical social distancing to preserve health deserve priority more than donations to the institutional Churches.

The New Testament teaching is plain: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

CHRISTIAN

(Name and address with Editor)