COVID !!!
By Mike Roberts, HUUC Church Historian
No other challenge during Reverend Bill Gupton’s tenure as the minister at Heritage UU Church was as daunting as when COVID struck the global community. It disrupted and threatened the lives of the church family and demanded that the church leadership maintain a constant vigilance in light of the dangers but also to maintain the functioning of Heritage as a spiritual base for that family. Bill’s response to COVID can be marked by his monthly messages to the church community through the Heirloom newsletters.
In the March 2020 issue of the Heirloom, there was no mention of an international threat to the safety and well-being of the world community. Bill had just begun a sabbatical and left the church in the capable hands of RE (Religious Education) Director, Reverend Leslie Woodward. In the April 2020 edition of the Heirloom, Reverend Bill painted an entirely different picture of the now ominous future.
We are living in difficult, anxious, unprecedented times. I am certain that each of you has been experiencing a wide range of emotions while, together as a society and as a religious community, we navigate the changes to our lives, our plans, our hopes and dreams, brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic. Since Feb. 1, when I began my sabbatical, I have watched the news with growing concern and compassion, and my heart has ached imagining all that you must have been going through. My prayers for the health and safety of you, and those you love, have been and remain a constant part of my spiritual life.
As the pandemic began to take shape, and to reshape our lives, I opened lines of communication with Rev. Leslie Woodward, and we have been discussing appropriate responses for me, considering that I was on sabbatical. You may recall that part of my sabbatical covenant included procedures that we would initiate in the event of a national crisis or emergency. Certainly, we are in such a situation now. Therefore, I am ending my sabbatical and returning to an active role as your Senior Minister.
Reverend Bill and Leslie Woodward led the spiritual support system but many details related to protecting the congregation had to be addressed by them and the Board of Trustees. Serving on the board at the outset were President Jim Nolan and Vice-President Tamilyn Thompson. Also on the board were Bob Rush, Bob Booth, Mark Buckley, Barb Lyon, and Michael Wilhite. In July, terms ended for Nolan and Booth and they were replaced by Kay Inskeep and John Sandman. Tamilyn assumed the role of new President.
These leaders of Heritage had to deal with a scourge that had already killed 100,000 people by mid-summer. New terminology became a part of the church — Virtual Coffee Hour, Virtual Vespers, Zoom Worship Service, Remote Story Time, Zoom Town Hall Meeting. Reverend Bill summed up our need for safety in the June 2020 Heirloom.
We must take this virus and the dangers that it poses to our health and our lives very, very seriously. Which is why I continue to advocate for an abundance of caution and a level of physical separation that is, admittedly, almost antithetical to the warm, embracing, intimate type of community we have created together at Heritage Church over the generations. It breaks my heart —as I know it does yours — to be unable to gather together in our sanctuary, to be unable to hug one another, to be unable to share tears and smiles in person or to help raise our children in person or to break bread together — in person. Yet, it is precisely because of the Love that is the spirit of this church — precisely because we honor and seek to protect the health and well being of each and every individual (no exceptions) — that we must remain apart. For the foreseeable future. It is the only way for us to be safe.
The church valiantly adjusted to the Covid threat. Old church customs became virtual customs. The Heritage congregation held its return of the water ceremony at the end of the summer by watching the service via Zoom but then conducting a drive through at the church to contribute their water. When it came time to honor those who had passed in the previous year, a Zoom service was followed by a drive through at Heritage Acres. A virtual choir was established. In November, Reverend Bill felt it was time to continue his sabbatical and he left with this message.
On February 1, I began a six-month sabbatical that came to an abrupt end just a few weeks later when it became apparent that Covid 19 was going to alter our shared reality, disrupt our society, and threaten us all. Thankfully, although the pandemic has indeed done all of those things and more, only a very few members of our Heritage family contracted the coronavirus, and we have so far lost no one to this deadly disease. What we have done is rally around one another. We have found ways to continue much of our great programming virtually — including learning how to provide quality Zoom worship services, family chapel opportunities, and Vespers services. We expanded our staff to include a Zoom technician. We have created materials that go home to our families and children. We have started gathering, virtually, on our decks and now, with the coming of colder weather, in our homes. In short, we are maintaining the connections that make our community what it is and what we have come to expect (even without the hugs.)
During Rev. Bill’s sabbatical, the church continued to function in the midst of the crisis. Meetings and worship services were conducted virtually. The word zoom no longer meant the sound made by a hot car. However, starting in summer, every other week services were offered at Mound View Park under strict regulations. Masking was the order of the day whenever meeting others was necessary whether it be family, friends, or fellow congregants. Bill’s stint away from Heritage was over in June and he welcomed his return with this look into the future.
In short, we are entering a new and exciting phase in the life and long history of our congregation — a time when changes will continue and in-person activities will gradually resume, but the “old normal” will not return. Together, we will be creating a “new normal” that will in some ways be comforting and reassuring, and in other ways unfamiliar and awkward. As such, we will need to be understanding and forgiving of one another. Mistakes will be made. Anxiety will be heightened (and a year’s worth of pent-up anxiety perhaps sometimes expressed.) As people of faith — of Universalist faith — we will be called upon to grant grace, maybe even repeatedly to one another. Let us remember, and if necessary remind one another, to do just that. Let us remember, and embody, the Love that is the spirit of this church. Soon, we will be together again. Halleluiah!
Covid vaccination became widely available in 2021. Nationally, efforts were made to return to normal life and through the summer and fall of 2021, the church leadership struggled with how to resume face-to-face activities including Sunday services and regular and special events. Committees were formed and a survey of the church membership was undertaken. The result was to continue offering Zoom services but opening the church doors to those who wished to worship in the sanctuary. The first service was held September 12, 2001 when the annual water ceremony was conducted. It had been 18 months since on-site worship had taken place. Michael Wilhite had become the third Board President to serve during Covid and Laci Adams had recently been hired to replace Leslie Woodward as Director of Lifespan Faith Development. Reverend Bill tried to summarize what he experienced as he conducted that first service back in the sanctuary.
I write this just a couple of hours after our first, indoor, in-the-sanctuary worship service since March 15, 2020 — and I have to say my spirit is still flying high! As a man of words (sometimes many words), I am finding it difficult to put into words the power and depth of my felt experience this morning. But here are a few words and phrases and memories that are still reverberating in my mind and heart on this gray and rainy fall afternoon:
- People’s beaming eyes (masks require us to make more eye contact)
- Standing at the pulpit after being away for so long; feeling the wood with my hands (a tactile experience)
- The sheer joy of singing in our sanctuary
- Tears filling my eyes as I light a candle on the altar to mourn the death of a loved one
- Feeling a tug at my heart when singing the words, “every casual corner blooms into a shrine” while looking all around our beloved sanctuary, and experiencing the special sacredness of our place
- Similarly, for the first time in a long time, looking from the chalice flame to the sky — as has long been my practice — while singing “roots hold me close, wings set me free”
- The palpable excitement of our staff and volunteers as they work together to create a meaningful, integrated worship experience for people both in the sanctuary and on Zoom
- Hearing Les Tacy sing “Back Home Again”
- The sun breaking through the clouds — for a few minutes — near the end of the service
- Getting feedback that the Zoom experience was the best yet for people
- Greeting people in the parking lot after the service
- Seeing new folks experience our sanctuary for the very first time
- Our remarkable technology volunteers
- Children. Always the children.
Thus did Heritage move on to a new world while preserving so much that is precious from the old.
Image source: courtesy of Mike Roberts