"Places of worship bring huge solace and comfort to people, especially during this challenging time," said the spokesperson. "That is why they remain open during this period of new restrictions for private prayer and other vital functions like funerals."
"We continue to work closely with senior faith leaders and the places of worship task force, as we have throughout the pandemic," the spokesperson said, according to the U.K. newspaper The Independent.
As of Nov. 16, over 52,000 people had died of the novel coronavirus in the entire United Kingdom, the highest number of deaths in Europe. There have been over 1.3 million reported cases of infection. The seven-day average of new cases is at about 25,000 per day, compared to 1,339 per day on September 1.
Restrictions on public activity, including religious gatherings, have been implemented across the world to limit the spread of the coronavirus and to prevent health care resources and personnel from being overwhelmed by patients suffering severe cases. In the initial months of the pandemic, religious gatherings were a particular concern because of early outbreaks at these gatherings which appeared to spread the virus very quickly.
More recently, many religious leaders have pointed to data indicating that religious services are relatively safe when public health recommendations are followed, including limits on congregation sizes, mandatory physical distancing between different households, the wearing of masks, and handwashing.
Legal challenges have resulted in many places, with religious leaders arguing their venues are no different than similar gatherings or venues that are sometimes treated less strictly by public health orders.
The church leaders also aim to challenge the Welsh Assembly's three-week "firebreak," a time of restrictions on gatherings which concluded Nov. 9. During this time, police shut down one worship service on the grounds it was illegal.
Another clergyman backing the complaint, Rev. David Hathaway, President of Eurovision Mission to Europe, said the government has "failed to recognize the centrality of faith to a Christian's life."
"Sunday worship and access to church buildings has been treated like a mere hobby or pastime rather than foundational to national and Christian life," he said.
Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a former Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, cited the long history of government attempts to control, restrict and prohibit Christian worship in England. He mentioned the 12th century assassination of Archbishop of Canterbury St. Thomas Becket, and the treatment of both Catholic and Protestant dissenters.
"Church leaders as their successors have a duty both to ensure we are faithful to their memory and sacrifices and in our generation to be faithful to our God and our consciences," Ashenden said. "Such fidelity sets us in polite but determined opposition to any government that closes the doors of Churches, prohibiting access to the sacraments and our corporate responsibilities to God and to one another."
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Catholic leaders have also been critical of the blanket ban. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool on Oct. 31 said that the government's plan to halt collective worship would cause "deep anguish."
"Whilst we understand the many difficult decisions facing the government, we have not yet seen any evidence whatsoever that would make the banning of communal worship, with all its human costs, a productive part of combating the virus," they said. "We ask the government to produce this evidence that justifies the cessation of acts of public worship."
Nichols and McMahon are, respectively, the president and vice-president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
Though he is not part of the latest legal challenge, Nichols joined leaders of various English communities in a Nov. 3 letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
"We have demonstrated, by our action, that places of worship and public worship can be made safe from Covid transmission," the letter said. "Given the significant work we have already done, we consider there to be, now, no scientific justification for the wholesale suspension of public worship."
Christian Concern noted the example of Germany, where Prime Minister Angela Merkel refused to close churches during the country's current lockdown on the grounds that doing so would raise serious constitutional issues.