Diocese of Fond du Lac’s
Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Review and Explanation
There
are many concerns involved in responding to Covid-19 – public health, economic
and personal financial health, emotional and spiritual health under “lock down,”
and government’s competency in balancing the other three vs. potential
governmental overreach. This is not the place to discuss where there has been
governmental competence vs incompetence vs overreach. But I will address how we
as a diocese and, more specifically, I as the bishop, have sought to address
the church’s response to the pandemic.
Our
response to the virus is only partly informed by what the government has directed.
We began responding to Covid-19 well before any directives from the state government.
As early as March 5, I gave directions for ‘Communion and the Coronavirus’. Our
congregations met under those guidelines for two Sundays, including March 15,
which was after both the Governor of Wisconsin and the President of the United
States had declared states of emergency and one Sunday more than some
neighboring church bodies. But it was clear by then, that a different kind of
care was going to be needed if we were going to mitigate the spread of the
virus and help keep our members and neighbors safe.
I
formed the Covid-19 Task Force in the week before March 15 and began meeting
with them to discern the most faithful and responsible way forward. On March
16, in response to directions “from the CDC and the White House” I suspended
in-person worship in our church buildings. This was before Governor Evers’
March 26 ‘Safer at Home’ order. It is actually stricter on some points than
what the governor directed. That has been the status quo for the diocese since
and remains so at this point except for the recent allowance for more
congregations to celebrate Eucharist under clear and strict guidelines. While
that allowance goes further than any Episcopal diocese around us, it is still
stricter in terms of how many may participate than the governor’s order
allowed.
[The
various statements from the diocesan office mentioned above can be found at https://www.diofdl.org/covid-resources.html]
I
review all this to point out that decisions regarding worship in the Diocese of
Fond du Lac have only partially been in response to what the government at any
level has told us we should or should not do. Rather those decisions have been
based on public health information from experts, including those on our own Task
Force. They have been based taking the pandemic seriously and, given that, on
our equally serious determination to love one another and love our neighbors.
We
are enjoined in Romans 13:1-2 to,
“Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities
that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority
resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.”
While
we generally submit to the governing authorities and are suspicious of calls to
resist those authorities unless they contravene a gospel imperative, the
Church’s ultimate authority is not what any earthly government – whether local,
state, or federal – says. Or, for that matter, any of the various
interpretations of the Constitution. Nor is our ultimate allegiance and loyalty
to any of those. Ultimately,
“Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from
there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians
3:20)
And
we seek a better country, the City, the New Jerusalem God has prepared for us:
“They confessed that they were strangers and
foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that
they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they
had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed
to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews
11:13-16)
We
put our hope in no governor or president or nation for, as the New Testament
declares, ‘Jesus is Lord’.
Jesus
is our authority and it is his directives we are trying to follow. His
commandment is that we love one another as he loved us (John 13:34) and he
promises to free us to do so. Thus, our most fundamental right and freedom is
to love God and love our neighbor. So, we seek to, “owe no one anything, except
to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law”
(Romans 13:8). And it is that direction we are seeking to follow in our
decisions regarding whether, when, and how to open our church buildings. Based
on the best knowledge to which we have access regarding the threat of Covid-19
and given our determination to follow Jesus’ directive to love one another and
our neighbors, what is the most faithful, most responsible thing for us to do? It
is with that question we are grappling. Whatever we do will based not on fear,
but on care.
Believe
me, I wish as much as anyone we could just simply go back to worshiping
together in our
church buildings. We have beautiful church buildings that evoke wonder and a sense of the holy. They are soaked with decades of prayer and memory. It is right for us to miss them. Even more, it is right that we miss gathering. And I miss regular worship together in the presence of the gathered body of Christ. At the end of every Eucharist with the dismissal we disperse our members so we can be the body of Christ in the world. But we are meant to be ‘re-membered’ week by week. This long, enforced dispersal is not natural. I do not just not like it; I think it is problematic. I want us to resume gathering as the body of Christ in worship because it a fundamental vocation of the Church.
church buildings. We have beautiful church buildings that evoke wonder and a sense of the holy. They are soaked with decades of prayer and memory. It is right for us to miss them. Even more, it is right that we miss gathering. And I miss regular worship together in the presence of the gathered body of Christ. At the end of every Eucharist with the dismissal we disperse our members so we can be the body of Christ in the world. But we are meant to be ‘re-membered’ week by week. This long, enforced dispersal is not natural. I do not just not like it; I think it is problematic. I want us to resume gathering as the body of Christ in worship because it a fundamental vocation of the Church.
But
it is not clear that it is safe to do so at this point. The state supreme
court’s ruling expressly did not deny the ongoing seriousness of the virus. Even
with masks, physical distancing, and other precautions, it is our understanding
from public health experts that the length of time shared in the same space,
breathing the same air, makes worshiping in groups too unsafe. I appreciate that
many are willing to take the risk of contracting the virus in order to participate
in worship in your church building. I would be willing to take that risk as
well. If it was just about me. But I do not want to risk giving the virus to
someone else if I am infected unknowingly. I do not think you do either. That
is why we are being extra careful. We will continue to make our decisions based
on the best medical and public health information we can glean as we seek how
best to go forward faithfully.
We
will begin a phased resumption of gathering for worship in our buildings,
possibly as early as the middle of June. But that will largely be determined by
the rate of infection and other public health factors. Directions for the first phase of regathering in our church buildings will be published next week.
There
is a lot of talk now about the Church being essential. I absolutely believe it
is. It is important to note that while we have not been going to our church
buildings, we have not ceased to be the Church. We have found creative,
faithful ways to worship and pray and connect with one another and serve and
bear witness in spite of the constraints imposed upon us by the pandemic. In
that sense, we, as the Church, have continued the free exercise of religion as
per the First Amendment.
I
ask your patience and forbearance as we discern the next steps. And I ask your
prayers for me, the Task Force, our clergy, lay leaders, and all members of the
Diocese of Fond du Lac. It is my firm conviction that God is faithful and will
see us through this challenging time. And God continues to lavish grace upon us
even now.
Under
the Mercy,
Bishop
Matt
Amen! Thank you Bishop!
ReplyDeleteNice post thank you Nik
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