Rev. Dan Schultz

WCC Community Health Program Director

A bit of welcome COVID-related news this week: Wisconsin, by our assessment, has fallen back from a “critical” level of concern to “high” concern.

Let’s make two obvious points about that fact. First, that’s still higher than we’d like it to be. We still recommend wearing high-quality masks indoors, avoiding food-related activities, and limiting singing in worship, among other things.

Second, while we will hopefully subside into even lower levels of concern over the summer, this is likely to be a temporary reprieve. Most experts believe we’ll see another wave starting in late fall or early winter, and they remain worried about new variants. As always, we may done with the pandemic, but the pandemic is not done with us. But much like the widow finding a lost coin, we will rejoice over what we can.

As the pandemic goes on, it continues to fade into the background, especially as other, more high-profile, health issues capture public attention. The question thus becomes: how do we keep appropriate focus on COVID? We don’t want to seem unduly alarmist, but at the same time “things are not going back to the way they were,” as one pastor recently told me.

Part of the answer lies in creative adaptation, or “holy imagination,” as we call it at the WCC. For example, the pastor I traded emails with was looking for ways to adapt communion practices so their congregation could get away from pre-packaged cup-and-wafers. If you have any suggestions, I’ll gladly listen. We will have to do a lot of imagining along these lines as things go on, and sharing the ideas we come up with.

We’ll also have to find some ways to expand the conversation. One of the ways we do that is by providing high-quality information, news, reflection, graphics and videos through our Community Health Program newsletter. 

Just as one example, we released this week the second in our video series on empathetic listening: Expect and Embrace Difference. It teaches—briefly—how to remain open in conversation with someone very different than yourself, and how to provide the space they need to be authentic with you. Give it a watch.

If you enjoy the video, or want a broad-minded yet informative perspective on COVID and how it affects the church, we invite you to subscribe to the CHP newsletter. It’s holy imagination, delivered to your inbox