Buckingham rector goes viral with impassioned vow to keep church open

Buckingham's rector has achieved social media fame, after a speech he made, vowing never to lock down his church again, went viral on Twitter.

Rector of Buckingham Will Pearson-Gee's impassioned comments, made during a service on Sunday, December 19, have been viewed nearly 682,200 times and led to him being interviewed by Mark Steyn for GB News.

Among the many positive comments on Twitter, there have even been calls for him to be made a bishop or archbishop.

Rev Pearson-Gee said he made the speech during 'housekeeping notices' at the start of the service at Buckingham Parish Church, after seeing a sign on another church, announcing the cancellation of its carol service.

He told the Advertiser: "I'd had a tricky couple of days the previous week where people were emailing me saying, are you going to close your church, and something inside me just absolutely flipped and I thought, how dare you cancel the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ?

"And I remembered, when I was visiting Baghdad in 2019, meeting the widows of some men who had been picked up on their way back from church and tortured and executed.

"And I just thought, you know, for them church was non negotiable - they didn't just cancel going to church even though they knew that their lives were in danger.

"How have we got to the point where people just don't really care - yes, we'll close church, it doesn't really matter.

"So I stood up on that Sunday morning and it was unplanned, unrehearsed, I didn't have any notes.

"It was almost, by the way, I just want to say something that's on my heart.

"We are not an entertainment venue, we are not a cinema, we are not a football match, we're not going to close.

"And if we're ordered to close it will have to be by law - I will only do so screaming and kicking, because it's really important

"And it's just touched a nerve."

Rev Pearson-Gee said he has been taken aback by the response to his impromptu speech.

"When I'd finished that little two-minute thing, there was a round of applause, which is very unusual," he said.

The speech subsequently went viral after being tweeted by his daughter.

"It was a great shock to me," he said, "because I don't really do Twitter.

"I think I only had nine followers."