COVID-19: May 21 Update from Co-EP Eliana Maxim
Seattle Presbytery
Dear friends,
I know many of you, like I, were grateful for Scott’s words last week. His acknowledgement of these unsettling times and the emotional challenges it has presented has, I believe, given us permission to speak more honestly about our struggles even while troubleshooting Zoom worship, calling congregants, and trying to think about what’s next for us as church, as families, and as individuals.
It’s also caused me to reflect on how I've felt tested during Covid - which changes from moment to moment - to stay focused, positive, and motivated. And what I realize is that living and working in the midst of pandemic keeps me dislocated. The location I call home and has always served as my sanctuary, now must serve as my “everything” place, where I work, play, and rest. Time is a moving target; meal times are any times, and the separating lines between work time and non-work time have blurred. All this dislocates me.
We are not accustomed to this reality. Frankly, we are rooted in a culture that has conditioned us to believe that we actually have power over our space and time. We take delight in planners and syncing calendars on our electronics. We desire to plan and depend on a semblance of predictability all to remind us we are in charge of our life.
Living in a global pandemic, with its restrictions and guidelines, throws all that away.
But I like to think that dislocation invites us into re-orientation. If we dare to engage in it, we can take time to simply step back from all that was, all the things we used to do and ask: what does this mean? What value does it have for me today? Is there another way?
It’s what allows us to experiment and take a chance. We’ve seen that with how churches are responding to celebrating worship, conducting Bible studies, and even providing children activities. I’ve witnessed congregational meetings online and been able to speak on an international panel from the comfort of my home. Perhaps this is exactly the time and place we all need to be - this discomfort of being dislocated from our usual - in order to rethink and reimagine church as both place and mission.
As we look to the end of the month, with hopes of moving into the Governor’s phase 2 of Sheltering in Place, I pray that church leadership will be more engaged in conversations around the long view of being church and relevant to their communities, rather than anxiously looking for when to re-enter the building.
Let’s not rush through this period of discomfort, dislocation, and reorientation.
Let’s encourage one another to think creatively about the big picture, of how God may be using us at this particular time, to bring about something new.
Let’s be kind to one another, care for another (yeah, use those masks in public), and grant each other grace.
Eliana Maxim
Co-Executive Presbyter
Join us tonight at 7:00 on Zoom
The Race & Equity Task Force of the Seattle Presbytery invites you to join a continuing conversation on how to pursue racial justice in our churches and communities. Join us tonight: Thursday, May 21 at 7pm via Zoom for this time of learning and discussion. Please register online.