It seemed, at least, that the way was now open to a reasonably “normal” Christmas, as far as carol concerts were concerned. But then the Government’s new restrictions were announced on December 8, and immediately those depressing “cancelled” notices began to appear, suggesting that once again we were in for a silent Christmas.

Look closer, however, and it becomes clear that there’s actually no freefall. Most churches and other organisations have decided to soldier on, because as Hugh Morris, director of the Royal School of Church Music, explains, they’ve learned how to cope. “If you look at who’s cancelling, it’s often institutions with vulnerable populations like hospitals and care homes,” he says. “There’s actually no ban on singing without a mask, as long it’s what the Government calls ‘reasonably necessary’. 

“So choirs singing in church is fine,” he continues, “but if you want to burst into song on the top desk of a bus without a mask, you’d better not. Churches are avoiding knee-jerk impulses to cancel, and are finding sensible ways to keep the show on the road.

“There are two key issues, ventilation and density of people, and the first of those is frankly quite easy to organise in churches. Right now it’s a good thing [that] most of them are big and draughty. And the other thing is to avoid a crush of people, because when there are more than 500 people in a venue you might get into the realm of Covid passports, which is hard for a parish church to handle. You can do that by making it a ticketed event, with a limited number of tickets.”