In This Pandemic, Are We All Monastics Now?: A Public Letter To My Parish

In other words, in some ways, we’re all monastics now. Historically, those who took vows for the monastic life committed to chastity (social distancing), poverty (no eating out), obedience (follow the rules), and stability (stay home).

Dear Church,

I’m asking you to find time in the next couple of days to read this whole e-mail (yes, it’s kind of long) and then as you are able, send me your responses and insights. I think we need collective wisdom on our next steps, and I cherish your responses and Spirit-inspired insights.

Church life is going to remain different for much longer than any of us imagined, even if we find ways to get back to gathering “IRL” this summer. Because the coronavirus spreads in aerosol form, and it seems masks and spacing still do not mitigate the spread in large gatherings, many of the things we do together vis-a-vis church will have to remain changed.

For example:

A national gathering of choir directors and musicians hosted a seminar recently, and their conclusion was that there is no safe way for choirs to rehearse together until there is a vaccine or 95% effective treatment in place, most likely 1-2 years. Obviously, since congregations sing together in large groups, this would apply to singing in church also.

Our public schools and universities remain uncertain about plans this fall, which means churches, whose youth gatherings and Sunday schools and adult forums all gather in formats comparable to schools, will be affected over the same period of time and in similar ways.

Some basic wide-ranging thoughts:

1. We have definitely found our groove for online worship. We’ve kept it intentionally low-tech. As you know, I just carry a laptop around during the service to stream all parts of it. I’m hearing reports back that it’s working well for the vast majority of our members. Many of you watch it live at 9 a.m. Others catch the recording later in the day. Many have been sending in photos of communion at home. We’d love to collect and share even more photos!
2. I did a count recently, and only about a dozen households do not have access to either Facebook live streaming or the podcast, out of 250 member households. Additionally, on average over 1500 devices view our live stream each week.
3. Of those without access, many are in care facilities or other situations where they have access to alternative forms of spiritual life in community. The remaining I am actively helping get set up with tools as they need them (shopping for a laptop with one person tomorrow). A few households are happy using the alternative faith formation tools they already had before the pandemic, like daily devotional books and the bible.
4. We’ve been recording a weekly children’s message from the beginning of quarantine. These are well-received and viewed hundreds of times. We’ve encouraged families to make use of the weekly Sunday school curriculum being produced at Sparkhouse. I am encouraging middle school/junior high age families to use the weekly podcast Harry Potter As Sacred Text for their devotions.
5. I have not heard a lot back from anyone who is wanting us to form additional small groups right now, so I have not focused energy in this area. We have encouraged the idea, however, that small groups can crowd-source themselves using social media invites.
6. I have heard back from some who are lonely and would like to have more conversations with others by telephone. Please let me know if you are feeling this way, and/or if you are available to make more calls. And of course, please keep doing the weekly phone tree contacts.
7. Those receiving these e-mails and reading them are getting regular updates, and are connected in this format. There are still a lot of recipient e-mail addresses who receive the e-mails but do not read or open them (we can tell because Constant Contact tells us which e-mails are opened and which aren’t). And there are many people in our congregation (children in particular) who do not see these e-mails or our other social media activity, and so do not have any direct contact to church right now.
8. All of this leads me to conclude we were prepared for quarantine in terms of general household communication and streaming of worship, and have adapted well, because as a congregation we are so active in social media spaces. But we were not really prepared to bring other kinds of faith formation home, Sunday school and youth formation in particular. I think it is going to take a lot of commitment and a certain amount of work and time for parents and households to make the shift to doing faith formation at home.
9. One of the objectives we set ourselves in 2019 was equipping youth to help us all discover and love the church. Now that church is distributed and not gathering in the building, I think it will take imagination and creativity to pursue this objective. I think I need ideas especially from parents and grandparents and those who are seeing our youth regularly.
10. We do have an historical model for how to handle church at home. Luther’s Small Catechism was originally published as a broadsheet, so families could post it on the wall of the kitchen or somewhere in the house in order to read and memorize it. I think one step we can take as a community is to develop new tools that help us do faith formation at home. We have a real opportunity to pray together, read Scripture together, and practice our faith in daily life.
11. The other objective we set for ourselves in 2019 was to strengthen the experience of the presence of God in our weekly worship. Well, what does that look like under the conditions of quarantine? We’ve been inviting ourselves to set up chapels at home, engage in ancient prayer and sacramental practices in new ways, and in every way bring worship into our own homes.
12. In other words, in some ways, we’re all monastics now. Historically, those who took vows for the monastic life committed to chastity (social distancing), poverty (no eating out), obedience (follow the rules), and stability (stay home). “Obedience” might be the part of the monastic life I’m pondering the most at present. That’s kind of a loaded word, so I’m taking it in the gentle sense, that like monastics we willingly join the practices of the community of whom we have become a part. What does it mean to be obedient to one another, and to our Christian faith practices? What does it mean to commit, and re-commit, to a life of prayer, the reading of Scripture, to worship, to forgiving one another, proclaiming God’s love, to providing mutual care for one another, and speaking for justice in behalf of the poor and oppressed?
13. I’m especially perplexed right now about a few things. Like, when can we hold baptismal services for our candidates for baptism? Should they be online? Similarly, how can we receive new members into our congregation? What do we need to be doing to provide hospitality for “visitors” to our weekly online worship?
    We are a congregation especially committed to public advocacy, for speaking up for justice. Right now, crisis capitalism is disguising many of its abuses under the cover of the pandemic. How can we focus our attention as a congregation in order to be effective as social gospel advocates?
14. How do we do all these things creatively, inspired by the Holy Spirit, while also guarding and protecting one another from the virus, and participating with the whole world in caring for our neighbors in their needs for wellness of all kinds?

These are some of the thoughts/questions I have. We don’t need to answer all of them instantly, but I would like us to be considering them, and considering them together. This next week, I’m going to take time to reach out individually to families with children in our congregation to ask especially about our youth, since they are the group in the congregation who is perhaps the most silently affected by us not gathering in church on Sundays. (One fun side note, some of the kids have started sending me invites in the kids version of Facebook Messenger!)

Okay, that was plenty long. Thanks to anyone who read the whole thing, and thanks even more to those who respond. We really are in this together.

In Christ,

Pastor Clint