Rev dear Rev: I was refused a couple of anointing blessings when I went into the operating theatre for some operations, both of which did not end very well as they were not without fault, so in this case in the case of such refusals do I have the right to go elsewhere for my parish anointing blessings before operations?

At the risk of sounding off as avuncular and as kindly and as supremely unctious as Dr Karl Sikora, it remains for me though to point out that in these stressy times for normally very religious parish clergy, not all of whom have been without Covid, that in these truly heart-stopping awful times of Covid when the whole world has drawn breath and paused for breath too if that is possible in such times, then there will be some oversights to pastoral practice from time to time chiefly because the parish clergy have been sick. Also, some parishes might have decided policies on anointings before operations where say these are minor operations that are non-life-threatening, so this can often be the case, but also do bear in mind that new policies were handed down by the various dioceses in the far distant islands and one of them was that parish clergy over 60 could no longer go into the local hospitals, as well as another policy decision that clergy before going in needed a whole new raft of official ID laminations. This might have been the problem. Allied to that but also during the Covid Alarm and Alert house to house visitations were strictly verboten by local bishops - so your problem is with your diocese maybe and not the local clergy. Sorry that we cannot be of more help. The clergy sometimes recuse from anointings though for reasons of ill health, poor boys, but also for the sheer scale of the great team effort required to counter the dreadful shadows of the stalker known as Covid. Maybe the clergy themselves there were suffering from Covid at the time - and were simply being busy dying, dear lady. We must all try to be a little more patient with our healthcare and emergency responder professionals. Aaron be blessed. Bless.