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Viewpoint from Rev Matthew Price 16/07/2021
 Rev Matthew Price is Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston
So called “freedom day” is just around the corner!
As I write, the Prime Minister has just announced that it will bring the end of all legal restrictions on the numbers of people who can gather - inside and out. Mask-wearing will no longer be mandatory, but a matter of personal choice and responsibility and, wonderfully from my point of view, communal singing will be permitted again in our churches!
There is still detail to be worked out; there may still be guidance about some of these things, and personal responsibility may mean that we choose to continue to wear masks in some contexts. But the Prime Minister was clear that the legal restrictions we have been living under for almost 18 months will come to an end on 19th July
 Isn’t that relief?! There is something within all of us, I think, which recoils from the idea of our personal freedom being restricted. And, in my experience, for many people that is one of the problems they have with the Christian faith. Religion is seen as imposing restrictions and meaning that choices we might want to make are no longer open to us
But that is to misunderstand Jesus. When he was on earth he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”. Indeed, since the birth of the church, it has been the testimony of many that, far from being restrictive, coming to Jesus and doing life according to his principles and priorities has brought freedom and joy and fullness
Now that is something to celebrate as we reach freedom day. And if you haven’t found that freedom yet, perhaps something which is worth investigating this summer
also published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury
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