Communion and Pandemic

Communion and Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic continues at the time of writing. Although western countries who are the prime subjects of their own media interest have mostly ‘flattened their curves’ and are easing restrictions, the impact of the coronavirus will continue for a long time, and in different respects. The African countries which are now the demographic center of the Anglican Communion have yet to encounter, or at least to report, the effects of COVID-19 in comparable numbers to those experienced in the USA and Europe. Nigeria eased its lockdown on May 5th with little sign of serious testing or gathering of statistics. With the African and Indian realities still to be assessed, and cases in Brazil still accelerating, even the impact of the first wave cannot really be counted yet. In the absence of vaccines or effective treatments, the likelihood of second and further waves is more than just high; and in some sense, even epidemiologically, COVID-19 may always be with us. The Churches will never be the same either. The changing circumstances of the pandemic have forced adaptation and innovation in various ways; and in the process a number of uneasy theological tensions have come into clearer focus. Things some of us may already have believed or stopped believing long ago about the Church and the Eucharist became obvious to others, where relative prosperity and ease in the West had allowed significant differences to be ignored. The material economy of the Church is compromised as much as that of households and nations; some great institutions reliant on visitors and programs are now hobbled, and local communities, dependent on voluntary gifts, are directly exposed to the vulnerabilities of parishioners even as they seek to minister to them. Yet the Church has sought to respond faithfully and effectively to the needs of its members in particular, and often to the wider community as well.