Law and religion round-up – 13th December

And on the last day of UK-EU trade negotiations…

…the end of another week of COVID-19 guidance

The Government’s COVID-19: guidance for the safe use of places of worship from 2 December has filtered down to the latest tranche of Church of England guidance – 3 new and 14 updated documents – to which there is now further Government guidance for services and carol singing over the festive period. Among the most welcome will be that from the Welsh Government, Singing over the festive period, including carol-singing and traditions such as plygain traditional Welsh carols and calennig and Mari Lwyd at the New Year. Nevertheless, the Church in Wales Guidance on Music and Organ Playing is unchanged from 9 November; 2-metre social distancing is advised as a safety precaution “especially for certain instruments like pedal-powered harmoniums”, and the use of registrants and page-turners is banned unless a member of the organist’s household. Continue reading