Deacons Reflect on Pandemic Ministry

Deacons Reflect on Pandemic Ministry

The Rev. Beatrice Kayigwa, All Saints, Worcester

In my mother country Uganda, we have experienced civil wars ever since we got our independence from the British in 1962. We would flee our homes for fear of armed forces attacking us. We hid in other villages, waiting to hear that our own village was safe to go back to.

When COVID-19 attacked the world, it seemed to me like a war between humanity and the virus. We ran away from public life and from our jobs; we stayed away from people who did not live with us; and the churches closed. Almost everyone was hiding in fear of the deadly virus. When the health department cleared the world to come out, we looked around; we wanted to check on our church. Is it still there? Did it survive the virus?

Deacons serve in the community. We work with people outside the church walls. My ministry in the world is to visit the sick, the lonely, and the shut-ins by taking them Communion, sitting with them, and listening to what they had to share. As a deacon, not being able to carry out my ministry in the world for 18 months affected me very much. I could not visit anyone in the hospitals, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities. I tried to call some of the people I used to visit, but if they could not take my calls,

I wondered if they could not hear the phone ring, or did their families move them? These unanswered questions— Is the person I am calling okay? Did something bad happened to them?— affected me and my ministry. I trusted in the Lord to take care of them, even though it was hard not to see or talk to them. ♦

The Rev. Jason Burns St. Philip's, Easthampton

I was ordained one week before the governor shut down the entire state. Rev. Michael Bullock, who is the Priestin-charge at St. Philip’s, had just returned from an extended medical leave for knee surgery and, as I had just been ordained, we were both looking forward to returning to a sense of normalcy, which we had lost due to his absence and my anxiety around ordination. But we didn’t get it. Instead, like everyone else, we had to figure out how to maintain a sense of togetherness when our community had to remain apart.

We began by attempting to prerecord worship services with my laptop and a computer microphone. While it worked, it took a great deal of guesswork, and many hours of video editing since the software we used liked to miss-record the audio track. After about a month of this, we gave up and went the route of Zoom. Ultimately Zoom turned out to be a blessing, at least for a while. Immediately after morning prayer, we held a check-in and learned a great deal about how people were feeling and the challenges in their lives. We received feedback that people missed seeing the church and that, while they appreciated the services on Zoom, they needed to see St. Philips. So, a small group of us figured out how to do live streaming using an iPhone, a laptop, and a 50’ sound cable which allowed us to connect our sound system to the laptop. We have had some upgrades, thanks to the generosity of several parishioners, and now St. Philip’s live streams their service every week in HD.

Our response to the pandemic has focused on forward momentum, Michael and I refused to allow fear of the future get in the way of our ability to worship God and carry out ministry. That doesn’t mean that the way we worship or the ministries we do haven’t been affected or that they haven’t changed—they most certainly have—but that is likely also a blessing because we can become stubborn and stuck and fail to recognize our potential. The pandemic has confirmed that well-thought-out, spirit driven change is good, and if we keep focused on our God-given purpose then we will pull through even the most challenging of circumstances. ♦

The Rev. Dianne Wilson St. Michael's-on-the-Heights, Worcester

I started my service as deacon at St. Michael’s-on-the-Heights on February 23, 2020. It was the Sunday before Lent started. I attended two Sunday services and two Stations of the Cross. The world shutdown on Friday, March 13, 2020.

My church and my street ministry both stopped. This was a first. How can we have Church? What are we going to do? The bishops of both dioceses came together to unify what we would be doing as Episcopalians. We had a plan. Executing it would take some real ingenuity and new skills. This was the beginning of acquiring a lot of new skills.

In the first few months, only our priest, Rev. Dave Woessner, went to church to do services. They were posted on Facebook. We had a parishioner skilled in A/V step up to help with getting the Good News out.

After a few months we discovered that people could do readings from home, have someone video them and send them to our A/V person and she put them together in a recording of the service. I proclaimed the Gospel from my living room videoed by my granddaughter. We did this until Easter of this year. This was our first in-person service! We held it outside. It was wonderful to see each other after all this time. ♦

The Ven. S. Jane Griesbach St. Francis, Holden

Community is key. Buildings are optional. One parishioner commented to me “I know we always say the church isn’t a building – it’s the people. Now, I know that’s true”.

St. Francis has four mission partners that we support in various ways throughout the year. Abby’s House, a women’s shelter; The Mustard Seed, an organization that serves the poor in many ways; Dismas Farm, a residential program for formerly incarcerated men; and the local food pantry help us bring Christ to the world of need. Early on in the pandemic, our church began to have “donation days” on Saturdays to collect items that were needed and difficult to find. At first only parishioners participated. After a short while, the neighboring community came and donated. These donation days continue still and our mission partners are always grateful.

The other ministries I participate in changed in the pandemic as well, but didn’t stop. Walking Together is a storefront that welcomes street people inside for rest, coffee, snacks, and conversation. Folks were no longer allowed to come inside. At first, we bagged up snacks and hygiene products and distributed them from the windows of our cars. A quick “God Bless You,” and then we drove off to look for others. Later on, the storefront became a sort of take-out place, handing out necessities from the front door.

The staff at the laundromat where we hold Laundry Love is beyond fantastic, in particular the owner Jared and the manager Vaneza. We continued to raise money, and Vaneza would call the regulars to come in to do their laundry. Customers came from shelters and the surrounding neighborhood. The Charlton town food pantry continued as well. Those in need called in, food was boxed and left outside for them. As time went on, those in need increased and so did our donations of food. ♦