Neil Darragh suggests that in our post-pandemic recovery we could become an outward looking, mission focused Church.

The COVID-19 pandemic and parliamentary elections were two extraordinary national events that affected almost everyone in Aotearoa in some way. The effects of COVID-19 and the Lockdowns have been tragic for some and devastating for the hopes and lifestyles of many.

At the end of 2020 and hoping that the virus can be contained, some voices, especially in business and economics, are calling for refocusing and retraining our national energies rather than simply returning to what used to be normal. Our new parliament further suggests that, as a nation, our future could be different, better perhaps, than the past. Underneath and driving these various voices are deeper cultural and spiritual values to do with social wellbeing, national character, cultural identity and diversity, the impact of tangata whenua, the possibilities of green technology, and a choice for generosity rather than competition in our national politics.

All of these are religious concerns. They call for attention from people like ourselves who are both Christians and citizens. In addition, over the last year, the “bottom lines” of our national politics have become more apparent — like whether some lives matter more than others, whether some cultures are more important than others, how we can stop destroying this small planet, and whether as a nation we are really committed to democracy where everyone has equal access to healthcare, housing, safety and education.

Among these voices, there should be Christian or church voices which contribute to that national discussion. Tui Motu is a place where we could expect that such voices are expressed. What we seek here is not just a single voice, nor a competition of voices, but a collaboration among voices.

Experiences of the Pandemic

Some of our experiences during this last year suggest a path into the future rather than a return to the past. During the Lockdowns we experienced “kindness” as a civic virtue replacing, for a time, competition and self-promotion as an acceptable civic morality. Along with this came a positive experience of the value of transparency and trust in central government with the result that quite harsh government decisions were accepted with a high level of cooperation. The severe restrictions on our civil liberties, restrictions on our right to freedom of movement within our own country and our right to work, for example, would have hardly been thinkable a year ago.

The high level of cooperation was possible, I think, because most people accepted we were being told the truth by the government and the Ministry of Health. Allied with this were government efforts to mitigate some of the most severe economic hardships to people and businesses, and this was supported by the similarly committed people in public agencies such as health workers and police. Recently there have been criticisms of these efforts, yet no one could have got everything right. With some exceptions perhaps, “citizenship” was a value respected by government and state agencies. We could not help comparing this with the continuous newsfeeds from some overseas countries where disinformation was common and enforcement harsh.

Experiences of Churches

Some of the effects of COVID-19 have been particular to churches. Because of restrictions on people gathering, many regular church attenders had the experience of not being allowed to go to church on Sunday — a wrenching away of something at the heart of their spirituality and communal lifestyle. One of the results was the bizarre experience of watching a priest “say” a private Mass before a camera, the slightly less bizarre Eucharists where a small “bubble” of people actually communicated together while hundreds of others watched over the internet, and the odd even if not quite bizarre “Liturgies of the Word” (Scripture-based but not Eucharistic liturgies) on Zoom or similar platforms.

At a deeper personal level, the spirituality of Christians has not been dramatically affected by the prohibitions on people gathering except, notably, in the case of funerals and tangihanga. Spirituality has many other resources and practices by which people’s communion with God is deepened and strengthened. Acting in ways that are life-giving and loving towards others could still be maintained even if in limited ways. There are some financial difficulties, but most church organizations could continue to count on their members to support them. Few church organisations will close down because of COVID-19 though some will operate at a reduced level. Unless there are new waves of the virus or there is an economic collapse, church activities could easily return to a pre-COVID-19 “normal” with some inconvenience to their organisers but without serious difficulty.

Reactions to a Pandemic

There are many stories of church involvement in epidemics in past history, especially the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918. Some of these stories record those peculiar disfigurements of Christianity which attributed an epidemic to punishment from God or which put trust in deliverance from the epidemic by God alone, unaided by any human beings “on the ground” so to speak.

Disfigurements aside, many of the stories are about the heroic actions of church workers (along with others) who cared for the sick and buried the dead with the result that they themselves fell victim to the epidemic.

Almost none of this has occurred in this pandemic in New Zealand. People have trusted in good government and a cautious discernment of good science to survive. Church workers did not have to die for their commitment to caring for the sick.

Almost exclusively, church leaderships have reacted to the pandemic by cooperating with government decisions and accepting that science is directing our response. This has seemed to most church members to be so natural that few have noticed how different this is from traditional (and still lingering) church resistance to “secular” society and a suspicion of science as anti-religious.

Both society and the Church have evidently changed in some basic ways and not everyone has noticed how basic that change is.

Indications of a New Future

What then might the Church experience of COVID-19 contribute to a post-pandemic recovery? Churches could simply return to “normal” — to the normal practice of church liturgies, personal development in faith, spiritual reflection and prayer, community-building, pastoral care of their members, administration of church property and compassionate help to others in need. We would need to include here also the recent emphasis on “safety” — measures to protect children and vulnerable adults from abusive behaviour by church personnel and to support victims of such abuse.

Or, Churches could see this recovery as an opportunity for refocusing and retraining our energies towards a new creative future for both Church and society as a whole. We would then shift the focus of our energies from the church community itself to the wider society. In church language, this is a shift from a “self-focused” Church to a “mission-focused” Church.

A mission focus means in practice a commitment of our energy to social justice and ecological sustainability. In biblical language, this is a focus on the “reign of God”, which includes the wellbeing of all people, not just church members. It includes, too, being careful and respectful of God’s creation — of all the beings and processes that make up planet Earth.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 255 December 2020: 4-5