At this point, it’s clear that the coronavirus story has moved past concerns about whether members of ancient Christian churches can catch the disease from wine in golden Communion chalices.
People will debate that issue for one simple reason — people have researched that issue for centuries and argued about the results. That story is the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to reporting on how religious congregations — past and present — have reacted during times of plague.
So read up on the “common cup” issue and then move on. Oh, and resist the temptation to spotlight the inevitable proclamation from the Rev. Pat Robertson. And there will be more to this story than Episcopal bishops turning a scheduled meeting into a “virtual” gathering.
That’s the message at the heart of this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in). And while many journalists tend to focus on Catholic churches — lots of people in sanctuaries that photograph well — I think that editors and producers need to consider how this crisis could impact highly independent Protestant megachurches and institutions linked to them. Mosques and synagogues will be affected.
Everyone will be effected. Reporters will need to focus on specific facts and broad trends.
While we were recording the podcast, I told host Todd Wilken that journalists may want to note that spring break is not that far away. In addition to sending legions of young people to jammed beaches and crazy watering holes, this is also a time when churches and colleges organize short-term mission trips to locations around the world. Sure enough, I saw this notice on Twitter a few hours later, from a campus in Arkansas:
Due to escalating concerns & uncertainty related to the spread of coronavirus & CDC guidance, it is with great sadness we are cancelling university-sponsored international spring break mission trips. More info: https://t.co/zKANYd7deI.
— Harding University (@HardingU) March 5, 2020
That decision about mission trips was clearly linked to this earlier decision about an extension campus in Italy:
We are heartbroken to share the news that out of an abundance of caution related to the potential threat of coronavirus in Italy, the decision has been made to close Harding University Florence campus for the remainder of the semester, effective Feb. 29. Those students will be heading home to finish their coursework remotely. This is obviously a huge disappointment for these students in this very special program. The specifics of course completion and financial details are being communicated to the students.
As we head into spring break, we encourage you to stay informed of ongoing developments of the spread of the virus as many will be traveling throughout the U.S. and the world.
By the way: The number of American students in study-abroad programs? It’s way higher than you think (and I say that as a professor with more than two decades experience in work linked to that trend).
In addition to looking at Catholic responses to coronavirus trends, I would suggest that reporters pay attention to what leaders will attempt to do in religious bodies that have — #DUH — much weaker national leadership infrastructures.
In other words, what’s going on right now at the Southern Baptist Convention’s headquarters in Nashville? What is happening in totally independent megachurches from coast to coast?
If you have a megachurch nearby with 5,000-plus members, stop and think how many babies and toddlers there are in the church nursery and kids involved in “children’s church” worship services. If church leaders shut those down, how will that affect services in all of those theater or even sports-complex-sized sanctuaries? At what point do they simply cancel coffee hour and every other form of fellowship and ask the grown-ups to sit quietly in the pews wearing masks?
Here’s another story: Will those tech-friendly churches simply go virtual? Let’s say you’re covering Second Baptist Church in Houston — which has 60,000-plus members. Does the Rev. Ed Young just tell everyone to stay home and stream the services? How many other large churches will choose that option?
Meanwhile, the normal American church is nowhere near that large and they do not have that option ready to go. The vast majority of religious congregations have somewhere between 50 and 150 people gathered for worship. How many of those will attempt to move to a “virtual worship” option?
Our own Julia Duin has been following this situation closely in the newspapers on the West Coast — since she lives very close to the crisis center in Seattle and Kirkland. She sent me a link from The Seattle Times pointing to a very interesting worship angle in the Jewish community there.
Temple De Hirsch Sinai, a Reform congregation in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, will stream its Shabbat services Friday night and Saturday morning, rather than have congregants come in person.
That’s not an option for all synagogues: Orthodox congregations abide by religious rules that restrict them from using technology on the Sabbath, the day of rest. Capitol Hill Minyan, a Jewish Orthodox prayer group that meets at a retirement community, announced on its website that it was suspending services as of March 4.
But the changes are discordant with the current the lunar month of Adar, one that’s traditionally marked by joyous celebrations — including the Jewish holiday of Purim, which this year starts Monday night and lasts through Tuesday.
Whatever religious groups try to do to cope, one simple fact remains. At some point, people are going to get sick and head to hospitals and some will die.
Will clergy go to visit the sick? In ancient traditions, will they anoint the sick and pray for healing? Will priests hear final confessions and take Holy Communion to the dying?
Of course they will. Clergy have, for centuries, been risking their lives to provide comfort and save souls.
My “On Religion” column this week focuses on one such story from the horrific “Spanish flu” outbreaks of 1918-20 — when it is estimated that a third of the world’s population got sick. Somewhere between 50 and 100 million people died. Here is the top of that column, focusing on a priest in my own global communion. This is long, but I think readers will see the links to the current crisis:
The second wave of influenza in the fall of 1918 was the worst yet. By the time Father Nicola Yanney reached Wichita, Kansas, a citywide quarantine was in effect.
A 16-year-old girl had already died, creating a sense of panic. The missionary priest — his territory reached from Missouri to Colorado and from Oklahoma to North Dakota — couldn’t even hold her funeral in the city’s new Orthodox sanctuary. As he traveled back to his home church in Kearney, Nebraska, he kept anointing the sick, hearing confessions and taking Holy Communion to those stricken by the infamous “Spanish flu.”
After days of door-to-door ministry in the snow, Yanney collapsed and called his sons to his bedside. Struggling to breathe, he whispered: “Keep your hands and your heart clean.” …
A century later, many Orthodox Christians in America — especially those of Syrian and Lebanese descent — believe Yanney should be recognized as a saint. And now, as churches face fears unleashed by the coronavirus, many details of his final days of ministry are highly symbolic.
”Father Nicola got the flu because he insisted on ministering to people who had the flu,” said Father Andrew Stephen Damick, creator of “The Equal of Martyrdom,” an audio documentary about the man known as “The Apostle to the Plains.”
”For priests, there are risks,” said Damick. “But you cannot turn away when people are suffering and they need the sacraments of the church. You go to your people and minister to them. This is what priests do.”
Enjoy the podcast. And be careful out there.
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