On Wednesday I picked up the phone and called my mother. She is in her late 70s and has some mild underlying medical conditions. “mama,” I said, “It’s time for you to stop going to choir practice and attending church, at least for a while.” “I wondered if it was that bad,” she said. “Well, it’s not worth risking your health and you are in a high-risk category for severe to critical outcomes if you get COVID-19.” I’ll be calling my mom more often to take up some of the slack of her staying home. My kids living near her are checking in with her more too. Our family is finding new ways to be family for each other even though we can’t be with each other right now.
This morning I am writing to you, my church family, with a similar feeling of love, concern, and hope. If you are over age 60, or if you or someone in your home has a chronic medical condition like heart disease, lung disease, or diabetes, the Southwest Conference strongly recommends that you not participate in ANY in-person church gatherings for at least the next couple of weeks at least. And whatever your age, if you feel sick please stay home. This is a moment to take good care of your own health. And, this is a moment for us to care excellently for the most vulnerable people among us.
This recommendation comes after much prayer and discernment, a zoom call with all of our pastors and chaplains who could be present on short notice, briefings from our disaster service coordinator, consultation with medical professionals in our churches, conversations with both our ecumenical partners in Arizona and New Mexico and with National and Conference Ministry colleagues across the UCC, and heeding the guidance from both the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control. It is grounded in my listening to our congregations’ leaders first. It speaks to you and not for you, in the spirit of covenant that we all give careful and prayerful attention to the words of one another in the Southwest Conference. That’s who we are as the United Church of Christ.
Some of you or your congregations’ leaders are making decisions about suspending in-person church gatherings. As you discern, I encourage you to consider how many people in your gatherings fit the high-risk categories I mentioned above. Some congregations have already made their decisions. Decisions of this magnitude are best made, and given our polity, can only be made, by each local church. I fully support your decisions realizing that there is no one right conclusion in this moment. We are all doing the very best we can with the information we have in the circumstances in which we find ourselves and our churches. The conference staff and I remain here for you in any ways you find beneficial to support your leadership.
As we look for ways to be there for one another even if we cannot be with one another, the Conference office has enhanced real-time communication between clergy creating a GroupMe account for sharing local updates, resources, best practices, and creative ideas for being church in different ways. Our website now includes a page with updates about church events that are cancelled. We are sharing resources so pastors and churches can easily set up live-streaming for people unable to be present at gatherings. Conference-wide clergy conversations are scheduled next week to spark creativity for pastoral care and worship across distance.
All congregations and faith communities of the Southwest Conference remain open for ministry to our local communities and for one another during this pandemic. This moment gifts us with the opportunity to find ways to do ministry more collaboratively, creatively, and continuously.
The early church faced a similar moment according to the Book of Acts. When in-person ministry was no longer possible in Jerusalem because of persecution, and the church needed to give up meeting together in the Temple Courts because of safety concerns, they dispersed across great distances. Those earliest Christians experienced pain and grief, and they also found different understandings of what it meant to be the Church, to be Christian, to serve one another, to witness to the love of God and the power of the Gospel.
We all hope and pray that the end of this critical period of social isolation will fall at Easter time. Yes, I feel like we are heading into darkness and the unknowing of a kind of tomb right now. The situation is likely to become more difficult. More people are likely to get sick. More people are likely to die. We will hurt and we will grieve and we will heal and we will do all of that together because we are Church together. Resurrection is coming! We will overcome, and we will be transformed through the power of the One who live among and loves us more intensely than we can even imagine. My prayers remain with you. Know that the entire SWC staff and I are here for you.