Tag: COVID-19

17Sep

Ah, The End of Summer

A chill creeps into the air.  School buses zip through neighborhoods ferrying youngsters to school.  The peak of summer is a fading memory, a languid dream sandwiched between academic semesters. For students, homework now begins to pile up.  Marching bands drum and play outdoors as football players practice tackling each other in adjacent fields.  

In many churches, in a normal year, the summer doldrums would also be over.  Attendance picks up dramatically. Sunday school resumes. The senior pastor is back from vacation.  The summer musicians have disbanded and the “A Team” choir or praise team is back.  

Of course, in 2020, these normal rhythms have been disrupted.  Virtuality is the norm in many places, including the church.  In my virtual church playlist for this week, I have decided to simulate the end of summer by adding some special musical touches, particularly the thrilling hymn “Crown Him With Many Crowns”, and the opening brass and organ duo performing “The Prince of Denmark March”.  I picture the service beginning with a full choir in procession.  In the churches that go for “high church” ceremony, the incense is back, and we see the processional cross sticking out above billowing clouds of rose scented smoke.

I pray you will enjoy the virtual service.  May you be edified by this week’s Scripture readings. 

02Apr

Lent in a Time of Privation

“I feel like I shouldn’t have given up anything for Lent”, a patient said to me the other day.  In the midst of a global pandemic, Lent seems to have taken on a new life. As state and local bodies take drastic actions to curb the transmission of COVID-19, we all suddenly find ourselves in a state of government enforced deprivation and fasting.

Many of us are all but confined to our homes.  Travel is restricted, and spring vacations canceled. Schools are closed.  Churches are closed.  Restaurants, theaters, bowling alleys, and museums are all closed.  In grocery stores, masked customers flit about nervously looking for supplies that have sold out, such as eggs or toilet paper.  Some people are lucky enough to have work that is deemed “essential”, while others are furloughed and applying for unemployment.  The social fabric seems to be ripping apart. Accustomed to a land of plenty, we Americans now find ourselves struggling with privations that are alien to us.

Meanwhile, by coincidence, a large segment of faithful Christians are observing Lent. Lent was conceived as a season of fasting, discipline, and self-sacrifice leading up to Christianity’s holiest and most joyful commemoration, namely Easter.  The point of the fasting is to get past ourselves and our own desires, and to intensify our realization of our need for God and his work in our lives.

Whether voluntary or involuntary, this time of deprivation can either be a miserable mess, or it can be something we can see through eyes of faith as a kind of blessing.  The meaning of Lent, and of the tribulations brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic, can best be summarized in a statement passed along to me by a friend: “When we come to the end of ourselves, we see the beginning of God’s faithfulness.”

23Mar

Forsaking the Assembling Together … But Finding New Ways to Connect

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, many churches have wrestled with measures to keep parishioners safe.  That churches provide no immunity from the virus is well illustrated by the case of a Georgian churchgoer named Clay Bentley, who sang in a 100 member choir at his church on March 1 and soon afterward developed symptoms of coughing and fever.  He was hospitalized with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus.  Bentley told the Daily Mail that he’s heard that seven other people who were also in the choir are now in hospitals.

As the case load of infected people in the U.S. rises, state governors are calling for restrictions on all public gatherings.  Churches are heeding the call.  Unprecedented photos of empty pews and barren meeting houses have floated through the ether.  

Most churches have canceled all services, and moved to online formats such as live-streaming, Zoom, and webcasts.  Members have stayed in touch by connecting on Facebook, or by meeting only in small groups. Some churches have persisted in holding services, with modifications such as forgoing a communion cup. 

Borrowing from restaurants, some churches have offered “drive through” sacraments.  One example is the St. Andrew Apostle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, as reported by Catholic Philly. Father Leary is quoted:

“There’s a very beautiful paradox taking place. There’s a contradiction in people’s lives in the fact that they’re starting to realize what they don’t have. The absence is creating a longing for presence. What God is allowing is this divine encounter of love. He’s turning the hearts and eyes of the people back to Him.”

Others are similarly optimistic. Roxie Floyd of the Wilson Temple in Raleigh, NC, is quoted by Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: “Jim Crow didn’t stop our church, the 60s didn’t stop our church, race riots didn’t stop our church, lynching didn’t stop our church,” she said. “It gives you a strength and hardening of character to weather storms, that we will persevere through the worst times and come out on the other side stronger.”