Over the last year, the word that seems to be have been overused is ‘unprecedented’. On reflection, this is not an accurate word to describe where we are as a society today. Yes, the current situation is challenging and unlike anything that most of us have experienced before, but it is not unprecedented. The human race has lived with diseases before; schools and businesses have been closed before; social gatherings have been limited before. There is a lot from previous pandemics of the world that chime with where we are today.
Socio-economic shifts
As happened in the wake of other pandemics, the world has changed; whatever the next few months hold, we will not return to how we were in 2019. As with other pandemics, the change is not as sudden as it might appear nor is it wholly unexpected. Some of the things that will be different were already changing. To take just two examples, some of the high street stores that are closing down were in trouble before we had heard of coronavirus, and the Black Lives Matter campaign preceded the pandemic. Covid-19 has been an accelerant to all these changes, but not the cause, and they will not be reversed when we have reduced the risk and learned to live with the virus. The economic shift and change to society will challenge the church and the church will need to learn to speak into the changed situation, to identify the questions of justice, and to find its place anew in the public square.
Church work and worship
The church will also be subject to changes in ways of living that will affect the whole of society. On 19 March 2020, Senior Managers at Methodist Church House took the decision to ask everyone to work from home until further notice. This saw 154 members of staff feel their way around home working and all that it entailed. Shortly after that, HM Government imposed restrictions on public worship. We have all learnt and developed different ways of working and worshipping. Some elements of church life have been fruitful and very positive, whereas other areas have had to stop. It is important to remember the things that have stopped may not resume, but that may not be a bad thing. What we have to do is to recognise in all this what has changed for the better and to hang on to it.
