The Very Rev Albert Bogle asks whether the church is ready for the aftermath of Covid-19.

I WONDER if we really are prepared for all the changes that are going to affect us over the next three years in church and society? It will be as dramatic as the leaving of Nineveh, and if we try to turn the clock back we will find ourselves rooted to the spot like pillars of salt.

We are truly going to be facing the race of a lifetime. The only way to succeed and win is to move forward with our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, ‘the author and perfecter of our lives’ (Hebrews 12:2).

The fear and likelihood of mass unemployment will become the next global outcome of Covid-19. Commentators on all sides of the political divide are predicting a global recession. Hunger in some parts of the world, they reckon, will take more lives than the dreaded virus itself. And all this will lead to civil unrest, unless world leaders step up to the mark and begin to embrace a new spirit of internationalism and shared humanity. This shared humanity impinges on all of us as we begin to make our personal choices in order to allow others less fortunate than us to have the opportunity to live and flourish. When political leaders see these changes in civil society taking place, they in turn will feel confident to act globally.

Here at home, our local congregations will need to continue to explore and enhance the new partnerships and opportunities that many have already begun to develop. This will be exciting but it will also be costly, controversial and challenging, as new mindsets will be required in order to allow the changes to flourish and be effective. Members of congregations will need to be generous and caring for each other. We will especially need to protect and encourage those who will be on the frontline seeking to implement change. Dare I hasten to add that every congregation in the land will be affected by these changes? No congregation will be able to escape the aftermath of Covid-19.

Finding relevant and practical ways to support those who have been made unemployed or who have been bereaved over the past few months will continue to be a key area of ministry for congregations. A few congregations are already going through these new doors of service opened to the church through this pandemic.

One of the central doors is surely that of compassion and care for those who have been bereaved or have been left debilitated in some way. In the UK alone, as I write, over 45,000 people have died of this illness and it is estimated that around the world over 500,000 people have lost their lives. If you think of it, that means there are literally millions of people trying desperately to make sense of their lives in the midst of great sorrow and bereavement.

It is often during these times of selfexamination, alienation and loss that the words of Jesus can make sense and bring healing to hearts and minds. Could this perhaps be the touching place where pastoral care, faith and the internet can meet? The statistics of the Sanctuary First website show that the section entitled ‘Pastoral Care’ is one of the most visited areas of the site, especially the section connecting with loss and bereavement. This is an area where Sanctuary First hopes to grow and develop missional and pastoral opportunities. 

It is into this world of loss that we are now being called to be witnesses to Jesus, ‘the Resurrection and the life’. It is now up to this generation of Christians living with Covid-19 to begin to model what it means to serve each other. To model what it means to die to self, in order that we might live for Christ. The blinkered narrowmindedness of self-protectionism has no place in the mind of Christ; instead, we are called to have a generous spirit to all and to show kindness to our neighbours. This implies reaching out across parish boundaries and theological divides.

We need to ask ourselves what an effective Christian community looks like in order to be relevant in this disrupted, bereaved world? As more of the high street opens for business, if the leadership of our churches is simply focused on re-opening church buildings to return to a normality they once knew, I believe they will be greatly mistaken. The future of many local congregations may be more internet-based than located in a building. Many may well become digital communities with a shared physical location. Of course there will always be a need for buildings of some sort. These physical locations, however, may well become creative centres out of which new missional expressions of church are formed, becoming the new creative cathedrals or studios for mission and celebration. Let’s not be daunted by the scale of the challenge in front of us. We have a race to run. Let us embrace the disruption and move forward into the new place rather than seeking to return to what once was and can be no more. ¤