Keep our places of worship open

That should say .. have been cancelled .

.Churches will be open for private prayer .
All the meeting for the clubs and societies and groups that I attend have been for the last 9 months. I’d say that affects mental health too.
I don’t see why churches services ( meeting) should be any different.

I'm a church goer and I think they should close other than private prayer.

Yes everyone is wearing a mask with the exception of the rector. That is fair enough because we do need to hear him. Social distancing is observed, no singing and everyone uses hand gel. Everyone has paper sheets instead of the communal prayer book and bibles. But people are getting too used to it. They chat too much, hang around in groups after the service and the last time we went a lady played keyboard and sang three songs with much gusto. I don't think that is ok.

Not just churches should be closed of course other faiths do have to do the same.

It is very sad. The church still functions by running a food bank and church people are still there to do what they can for the whole community. Services are online.

Why do you think church goers need or deserve special consideration? Some people get their spiritual consolations from grandchildren, or communal dancing, or having tea with the woman next door.

This virus has to be contained otherwise it'll still be here 12 months on. You can't have people still flitting around, tough as it is as it's people who are creating the spread !
Food shops only should be the only places of entry, under strict measures.
You don't have to visit a place of worship to pray.

They should be treated the same as any other meeting. Keeping people safe is the priority.

I would say very naive.
How is a gathering in Church any different to people gathering in a home or other venue?
It is up to the Vicars, Priests and senior members of the Church to find ways of supporting the vulnerable during the pandemic.

Keeping them open for private prayer sounds reasonable to me.

Doesn't your faith sustain you in these special times?

I feel the same. We can’t keep the church open all the time because of the need for stewards, and our elderly congregation simply can’t supply the man/woman power to do this, and now even our short Sunday gatherings are prohibited. On line simply doesn’t do it for me.