Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive

Personal Stories

Item Set

Items

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  The name of Jesus is above COVID-19, photography by Lorie Shaull

  Message on a sign at Joy Christian Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota

• My experience

  I am a 22 year old college student. I grew up in the Methodist church in Lisbon Ohio. I was baptized there. I have always believed and god and I higher power. I stopped going to church after my favorite reverend quit. I recently have moved to South Carolina to live with my boyfriend and go to law school. I woke up in the middle of the night one night right when corona started in fear. I believe my dream had something to do with me dying of the Coronavirus. I was shaking so bad in my legs that it woke my boyfriend up. I told him I had a dream I died of the virus and he told me I was crazy. Then I got this fear of dying. I wondered about after life and god. I stayed up most night worrying and when I did sleep I woke up in panic attacks. I convinced my family to drive down and pick me up. (I was too afraid to tell them about my fears in fear of them making fun of me). I had been up for a couple days at the time I told my mother about it. She told me how she’s had spiritual experiences when her mother passed and that she believes in god. I never really talked with her about it before. That night I went upstairs and (I know this sounds crazy) this doll my grandma gave me before she died was on a table outside of my bedroom. It was strange because I haven’t seen it in forever. I had even been sleeping in my room the time I had been there and haven’t seen it. I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. I later started to have many questions about god and religion. My dad has always been religious because as a kid they had evil spirits in his house that would mess with him and his siblings. My moms side of the family has always discredited him because his father abused all his siblings and even my grandmother. They thought maybe the sprit was his dad and he was thinking it was a demon. He mentions this demon would shake his bed and he would call out the name of the lord and it would stop and run away scared. I don’t think he was lying. I never had. I believed he experienced it. Why would my dad lie? What would he gain from it? I talked more to my dad about god and religion and I felt more comfortable. I forgot to mention but while I was having my doubts I kept seeing the number 116. I looked this number up forever ago and it was an angel number. It means I will succeed and what I work for will become my reality. I told my dad about it and he said it’s a sign from god. I would be watching a TikTok trying to calm myself down and I would see the number or I’d be having a panic attack and see the number playing a game. I went up to visit my sister (we have all been in quarantine) and I told her about my experience and she told me she didn’t believe in anything. We were molested as children and I am not sure but I think her belief come from the pain she has endured. I had another panic attack. My boyfriends aunt is religious and weird enough the next day she invited me to her church video thing on Facebook (I’m not sure what to call it lol). I thought well that’s weird she has never done it before. So I watched it and weird enough it was about what I was stressing over. I watched it and I had more and more questions. I talked to my dad over FaceTime and he explained stuff to me. My aunts whole family never really believed in god or any higher power. A best friend of mine amber moved to North Carolina our senior year and I know she had become one with god. None of my friends other than her really believe in god or have ever been religious. I talked to her for a bit and she told me all the signs I was getting were from god and were comforting me. She said coincidences don’t happen. Every time I had my doubts and I mean every time I would see 116. She has had a very spiritual experience which brought a lot of comfort to me. I had a lot of questions about afterlife and heaven. My dad randomly sent me this video on near death experiences and all of them had a spiritual experience. The comments had a woman who said she was an atheist all of her life and she had some coincidences that made her believe. I didn’t get through all of the video as I had school work to do. But my dad came in from work and said it was weird... the video he randomly found YouTube. He didn’t search it up or anything. It was suggested to him. This was on his work computer and he was just looking up politics with the Coronavirus. I took this as a sign. I told dad that was insane because it was EXACTLY what I was worried about the night before. I hadn’t even talked to him about that. Since I have had my doubts I’ve also had signs from god and I truly believe they are signs. I never really had these experiences before other than when I told my mom about me being molested I had sleep paralysis the night before. It was a yellowish figure came and grabbed my hand and held it. I woke up the next day to tell my dad about it and he said it was my guardian angel comforting me about something. Later that night is when I told my mom. I don’t believe in coincidences and I really hope my narrative makes sense to you. But God is really here. I’ve been nicer and more helpful. I’ve been praying more and praying for other people and outcomes. My fears are gone. My doubts have went away. My anxiety isn’t there anymore. I believe I was sent to this page just to share my experiences. I feel like the Coronavirus has showed us what’s really important family, life, and god.

• How my Great-Grandmother has Been Affected by Covid-19

  I would like to start this off by mentioning that I understand the importance of religion for many people, but my grandmother is someone who takes her religion extremely seriously. Ever since I was a young child I always remembered my great-grandmother (a survivor of both the Great Depression, Polio, and World War 2) being completely dedicated to her religion and her attendance has only been affected by health issues. This changed a few weeks ago when it came time for Easter Sunday and my great-grandmother, being 94 could not attend that service for the first time in her life. She attempted to navigate technology to allow her to watch the service online but was unable to get all the kinks worked out, even with us younger grandchildren helping. Even if my grandmother had been successful in watching her service online, it would have been drastically different than what she had experienced her entire life. For someone who is a widow, survived many tribulations, and now has to go through Covid-19 is affecting her and the people around her, it makes things very difficult. Many of my family members are not devout to Christianity like my grandmother, this is very hard on her, with her not attending service, and not being able to talk about her religion it is causing her to go as she put it "stir crazy".
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  A view of Lancaster

  Photo 1 - The old Soul

• COVID-19 changed me

  I'm an international student that was suppose to graduate this may, I study in the United stated after Covid 19 started spreading, my state had low cases everything was online one day I woke up receiving an from my sponsors asking me to book my flight back home since its better there so I did, as I reached my country the checked our temperature and all , then sent us to a hotel that was guarded by the military themselves we didn't leave our rooms for 15 days, had no contact with anyone even the people in the hotel. The first few days went well but then it was sad and depressing being back home not seeing your family or connecting anyone in person , i used my time wisely, i started to create a schedule of the activities i would like to do , such as watch my lectures , solve my homework, work out , i became more connected to god , i did my prayers on time, I started drawing again and thinking of my future and what will i do once everything is over , after the 15 days i came home i learned how to cook , our maid went back to her country so i started helping my family in cleaning the house, cooking , going to buy the grocery washing them then putting them in the fridge , i washed the clothed and hanged them in the sun , i was used to a certain life style and i felt corona helped me change my personality, I became more independent, more organized , more spiritual more caring and understanding

• Pandemic Religious Experience

  This whole pandemic has been very interesting, to say the least. One are of my life that has been greatly affected by this pandemic is the religious aspect of my life. It has changed from going to church 1-2 times a week and doing a bible study with friends 2 times a week to spending virtual time with God on Sunday mornings. My church is doing their best to make our services as interesting and normal as possible during this unique circumstance but it is still vastly different. I never knew how important the atmosphere that my church provides was until now. I miss the community and sense of safety that it provided and I cannot wait until we are able to return to how things were before.

• virtual meditation

  Instead of meeting with friends for zazen or mindful meditations, they have all been moved online through Zoom. One nationwide for zazen: https://zenleader.global/virtual-zazen/?mc_cid=2af74c531b&mc_eid=1eb7ddaedc and one through Ozarks Dharma Community: https://www.ozarksdharma.org/2020/04/thursday-open-sit-meditation-now-online.html

• Religion during a pandemic

  My Church services and small groups have gone completely virtual. We mostly have been using zoom or FaceTime to connect with one another. Every Sunday, the sermon is posted on Facebook as well as Youtube. Its personally strengthened my religious beliefs as I believe God is using this time to connect and draw His people closer to Him. I only have Him to depend on as an unchanging source.
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  Our Holy Communion Table

  Here’s how we prepare our Holy Communion Table.  
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  First Presbyterian Church West Plains

  My story and a link to our churches sermons is in the pandemic file.
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  Communion during a Pandemic

  During the shutdowns associated with the coronavirus, Catholics have been prevented from gathering for mass for many weeks. Although many people watch services online, there is no easy or sanitary way to receive holy communion. This photo, accompanying article in AMERICA magazine, shows a priest in New Mexico distributing the eucharist to people in cars. Although this practice is not common, it is a creative solution to a serious challenge in religious practice.

• Aunt with COVID-19

  During this Pandemic, my aunt has unfortunately caught the coronavirus. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and has been hospitalized. She is 78 so her age hasn’t really helped with anything at all. My family has been going through a tough time especially my mother since this is her oldest sister. My mom has formed a conference call for our family and other family members to get on a call at 3 in the afternoon, everyday, to take the time to pray for her sister, as well as to pray for other people and things during this pandemic.

• Prayer Space

  In my house we have a sacred space where we go to pray and devote our time to God. During this Pandemic we have spent more time in this space doing bible readings, praying, and just coming together as a family. It’s how we try to find peace throughout all of this and still stay connected with God.
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  Holy Thursday Agape Meal

  Church service was held on zoom webinar where we blessed our food (I had saltine crackers and wine) to have a form of communion together. Traditionally in church we would have a washing of the feet to commemorate Holy Thursday but we washed our own hands in this case
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  Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, photograph by Edward Lea

  Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Atlantic City, New Jersey, photograph of Jesus wearing protective mask. Edward Lea is staff photographer for The Press of Atlantic City.
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  Home Communion Table for Zoom Worship

  Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020
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  Zoom LifeGroup

  Each week we look forward to having our LifeGroup in our home to discuss the sermon from Sunday. With the pandemic we couldn’t meet in person because our group was larger than 10 and we just didn’t think it was safe. So we have had a Zoom meeting each week. At first we wondered how it would go since it seems so impersonal. Well it has been full of deep times of conversations about our God and what is happening. It has been a time where we are so much more open and willing share about or struggles and needs. It has been a time of deep meaningful prayer for each other and the world. Though we can’t wait to meet in person again we are so thankful for technology and the ability to come before God as a group. One neat thing our church also did after each sermon was live-streamed was have a Zoom Lobby huddle where people could see each other and say hi since we all aren’t in the same same Life Group. I included pictures of the Life Group and Zoom Lobby fellowship.
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  A Eucharistic altar made of paper

  For the first several weeks of the lockdown, my church had not yet figured out how to distribute the consecrated elements for Holy Communion. But one Sunday my daughter made this Eucharistic altar out of scrap paper and tape, featuring a chalice, paten, Book of Common Prayer, and candlestick.