Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive

Items

• St. Edward’s Roman Catholic new normal

  We now attend mass via Youtube viewing of live Mass celebrated by our Pastor. Our Holy Week and Easter Sunday celebration was an empty church except for the priest, the cantor and a couple others to carry out the Mass. While listening to Easter music, eyes closed, it was if I was in church seeing our congregation like every other Easter I celebrated for the last 55 years. Open my eyes, I was in my pajamas in my family room looking at Mass on my iphone. Unimaginable! Somehow my spirit was connected to a higher being and felt grateful for my faith. Our diocese is ringing bells at area churches giving thanks to the doctors and nurses and all frontline workers.
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  Y'hi Ratzon -- Safe Together Apart

  I am Cantor at a Conservative synagogue (Jewish) in Columbus, Ohio. I wrote this song/prayer shortly after the arrival of what was first called Coronavirus, then Covid-19 -- before the word pandemic was being commonly used. The song/prayer had coalesced by March 20. It is based on a somewhat obscure passage in the weekday Torah service (the Torah is read every Monday and Thursday) -- a passage theoretically recited between raising the Torah and returning it to the Ark. The original prayer asks God (our Father) to protect us from desolation and pestilence. I broadened it -- both in Hebrew and in English -- to think of God as both Father and Mother -- and to ask for protection for all of us (not just "b'nei Yisrael" -- the children of Israel) -- brothers and sisters in this country and around the world -- and to keep us Safe Together Apart -- which is the unique challenge to us in these times. I typically do either the Hebrew or the English (generally not both) between various services -- or in the midst of some services -- probably about 5x per week. As we still follow our basic traditional rituals, it hasn't altered the prayers that we do. . . it just gets added here and there. And I share it with other cantors, other Jewish spiritual leaders, and leaders of other faiths, at all appropriate opportunities.
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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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  “Never let a good crisis go to waste”: Buddhist reflections on the Coronavirus pandemic

  An offering to the community from Sean Feit Oakes, this piece was written early on in the US experience of COVID-19, but it still contains relevant information for how to spiritually process the virus through the lens of a Buddhist practitioner. I tried to share it from Medium, but I got an error message, so I tried sharing his website front page, as the document is accessible via a hyperlink on that page. That didn't work either. Here is the link: https://medium.com/@seanfeitoakes/never-let-a-good-crisis-go-to-waste-buddhist-reflections-on-the-coronavirus-pandemic-f775f348e781

• Pandemic Ramadan

  The Muslim month of fasting is usually a time of more than usual communal get togethers. Not only are Muslims more inclined to perform prayers at their mosques, but in Sunni Muslim tradition, the month involves supererogatory prayers at night throughout the month. On one particular night during the month, when it is believed by both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims that the Quran first began to be revealed, all night vigils and prayers are offered. The special ritual obligations of the month are complemented by special social obligations. The breaking of the fast at the end of each day is occasion to invite family, neighbors, friends, strangers to the table to share in a meal of thanksgiving. As well, it is considered commendable to feed the poor and offer extra charity to those in need during the month. Traditionally this is done personally, to those in the community or neighborhood. Both spiritual and social obligations of the month will be tremendously impacted by the pandemic, in Muslim majority societies and here in the USA. Below is one Muslim community’s response to the challenge.
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  Preaching to an empty room

  Our church usually sends a video feed of the worship service into other rooms so that people who cannot easily sit in the sanctuary can still see and hear the preaching. The technology we use to make this possible has been pressed into service for broadcasting a live-streamed service to members' homes. Our pastors are having to learn how to speak to a camera at the back of an empty room. The goal is to seem as "normal" as possible, but the usual attentive faces are no longer present and their feedback cannot sustain the preacher's energy.
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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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  Minyan in Brooklyn, Photograph by Jacob Kornbluh

  Orthodox Jewish minyan, March 17, 2020
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  Prayer in the time of Coronavirus by the Chaplain of the House of Representatives

  A Prayer during the Coronavirus Pandemic for the United States House of Representatives Community, by Fr. Patrick J. Conroy, S.J., Chaplain.
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  Godly Play via Zoom

  For several years the idea of offering Godly Play – a method of spiritual formation grounded in research on children’s spirituality and play – in a virtual setting has been floated, primarily as a means of training leaders/mentors in remote or rural areas who don’t have easy access to in-person training. I admit, I was a skeptic from the start, even as one among a group of trainers who explored the topic – especially as such a key element of Godly Play is the relational, community component. Then came COVID-19, with virtual gatherings being the only way to connect, and I have, so to speak, taken the plunge. At last count, I’ve offered 12 Godly Play sessions via Zoom in just the past several weeks. It’s been a steep learning curve, and each time I’ve discovered something new about the mechanics of it … but I’ve also made some discoveries. What I’ve seen is that, while this new way of gathering for Godly Play is not the same, it can be nurturing and spirit-filled. We’ve had, in most sessions, a mix of intergenerational experiences that wouldn’t have otherwise happened. We’ve gathered as a community – “building our circle,” experiencing a story presentation, wondering about the story together, sharing in prayers, and offering blessings and goodbyes. During the “wondering time,” thoughtful responses have been given and received by all age groups, ranging from preschoolers to those in their eighties—and, rather than what often happens when children are put on a pedestal or laughed at or just otherwise seen as “cute,” there’s been a level of respect among the generations and the sense that all are on equal footing. One wondering this past week (which I share with his permission) came from a fourth grader who, because of his significant challenges to express himself in the usual ways, uses a letter board to communicate — "I'm pretty sad about Jesus," he said [in reference to his dying on the cross], and "I'm not sure how I fit in." The stories we share, and the opportunity to make meaning through wondering as a community, offer us the chance to wrestle with the existential issues we all face, including our need to belong. This child named that longing, for all of us I believe, especially at a time when we cannot physically be together. Thoughtful wondering among adults and children continued – both out loud and in the “chat,” and was interspersed with periods of silence. I’ve found that in these online sessions we've had participants show up — both adults and kids — who have never, or rarely, given Godly Play a try in person, including some of our parents who are for the first time getting a peek into what it’s like being “in the room where it happens” (even though we’ve often offered such opportunities in person). In part, that may just be a matter of how easy it is to join the session — you can decide right at the last minute — but whatever the reason, participation of newcomers has been noticeable. The child I mentioned above has never been able to participate in person in the way he was able to online – perhaps this online experience will be a bridge to his involvement in the flesh, or maybe this will just be a different way for him to participate going forward. In either case, I’m seeing this as a way to provide access to those who, for whatever reason, are not able to show up in person. Looking toward the future – which is hard to do more than an hour or two at a time right now – while none of us knows how this pandemic and physical distancing will end, I don’t imagine it will, nor should it, all end in a big splash with everyone overnight being ready to gather in crowds. One of the questions we are considering as staff and leadership of our church is, “What practices/ways will we discover in this time that we want to hold on to?” – a corollary, I think to the Godly Play prompt, “I wonder what we can leave out and still have all we need …” I am wondering whether we will want to continue to offer these online/live sessions – not instead of but as an alternative – even when we begin to go “back to normal,” whatever and whenever that will be. Images include the story “Exile and Return” and the Screen Share we offered in closing of the “Faces of Easter” Lenten series. Note: Godly Play materials and images are copyrighted. The Godly Play Foundation has been supportive of efforts to share virtually and has offered guidelines for doing so on its website: https://www.godlyplayfoundation.org
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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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  Virginia pastor who held service dies of coronavirus

  Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of Richmond, Virginia's New Deliverance Evangelistic Church held church services despite a government ban on large gatherings.
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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.
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  Anti-Defamation League on antisemitic Zoombombing

  The ADL created a list of instances of antisemitic "Zoombombing," where perpetrators intruded on synagogue services, Torah classes, or other meetings held on the Zoom video conferencing service.