Keeping Our Center ~ Day 127

Honestly, I am grateful to have been a pastor during this time in history because I believe that this pandemic will have a larger affect than we realize on church, religion, and how we see God. Some of it good, and some of it sort of sad, in my humble opinion.

As we know, many small businesses have recently gone under, large businesses are choosing which locations will remain open, and many small colleges and private schools are closing their doors. I have a feeling that many small churches will also be forced to close their doors or merge with larger congregations.

In addition, I have a feeling that the age of “working remote” will entrench itself in our business landscape in a more permanent way now that the experiment has been run and found to be successful in many cases. In the same way, I have friends who are preparing to “live stream” church for the long haul. Now that folks have experienced worship in their pajamas, with a cup of coffee in hand, it’s likely that even after the “all clear” has sounded, that convenience will weigh out over getting up and getting moving on Sunday morning.

Part of me finds this sad, and part of me recognizes that this is all part of the continuing evolution of religion. 

I really don’t want to see people turning away from church communities, as those supportive groups are so important for our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. But I do hope that this temporary exile (of sorts) from church has offered us the opportunity to see our faith less as a worship visit each week, and more as an inner journey where there are few rules and fewer road maps. Perhaps we can be more about the work of compassion, justice and wholeness, than adhering to an ancient set of creeds and problematic doctrine.

Ann Kania, in her article, “Religion: A Future Vision,” states, “The religions of the future will not be about external ritual, second-hand beliefs, or creeds, confessions, baptism, circumcision, confirmations and other outer acts of organizational conformity.  Rather, the role of religion will be about the inner psychological journey of keeping the individual’s personal ego-self related to the Deity or one’s Higher Transpersonal Nature and Self. It will be about an interdependent relationship to all of life for meaning in life to occur.”

It feels like we’re in the cocoon right now where all the mysterious messy stuff happens before the butterfly emerges. It’s hard to see what church will look like after this time of transformation, and I may not see the new creature emerge in my lifetime. I will simply have to trust the continuing unfolding of the Spirit in this world.

Love & Light!
Kaye