Sir, – Last Friday evening, the Health Protection Service Centre (HPSC) released its guidance for religious services during the latest easing of restrictions. It’s a 23-page document, and it’s a credit to the civil servants who have worked so hard to make it possible for religious groups to gather during this period.
We’re putting up with the cold. We’re wearing masks. We’ve postponed our hugs and handshakes. We’ve cancelled our after-church tea, coffee and goodies. But there’s one stipulation that’s crushing for our local church family, and for Christians all over the country that feels like a step too far. It is stated directly and with no room for compromise – singing is not permitted.
For the vast majority of Christian denominations, congregational singing is a core activity of our gathering. We believe it is a unique activity that unites our hearts and our minds allowing us to connect in a transcendental way with God. Even if you were to discount the spiritual benefit of singing, the evidence of the health benefits of communal worship are well documented.
Article 44 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of public religious worship. Is there good reason to ban this core element of public religious worship, congregational singing? Is it a public health issue?
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Let’s compare the risk to one person joining 49 others for a church service for 40 minutes with one person sitting for the same amount of time in my local chain coffee shop that holds 50 people. Research says that loud singing with masks produces 410 particles per second compared to 570 per seconds of loud talking. Let’s say a church service involves three songs at four minutes each. That’s 50 people emitting 410 aerosols per second for 12 minutes. Let’s say half of the people in the coffee shop are speaking loudly (you have to, Fairytale of New York is on repeat) for the 40 minutes at 570 particles per second. So far the risk in the coffee shop is almost twice. Now, consider that the nearest you can be to someone outside your household in the church service is two metres. In a coffee shop, you can be within a metre of up to five others from outside your household.
The British Medical Journal estimates that there’s five times more chance of spreading the virus when you’re less than one metre apart compared to above one metre (not to mind two metres!). It seems to me that an extremely conservative guess says it’s 10 times more risky to sit in a full coffee shop at the moment for 40 minutes than to be at a church service (that implements all of the other guidance, including mask-wearing) with communal singing for the same amount of time. I haven’t even given the more extreme example of being in a full restaurant with no masks with alcohol being served.
We’re prepared to compromise and do “soft-singing” which reduces the particle transmission rate by another half. Government, please let us sing! – Yours, etc,
Rev ANDY CARROLL,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.