Introduction to “Pandemics, Protests, and Performances”
The issue of Liturgy dealing with “Pandemics, Protests, and Performances: Embodying our Faith in an Unexpected Season,” guest-edited by Todd E. Johnson and Shannon Craigo-Snell, looks at many aspects of how ritual is done and in what context. What follows is an excerpt from the Introduction by the guest editors which explains something about the big shift that occurred for worship following the Covid-19 shutdown. –– Melinda Quivik
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Who could have imagined the changes that 2020 would bring to our entire planet? We certainly did not. We began preparing this issue of Liturgy in 2019. Our focus was on ritual performance in worship practices, and our two guiding assumptions were these: 1) ritual meaning lies not just in what is done but how it is done, and 2) ritual performances are culturally embedded and therefore contextual actions. In the intervening months, the Covid-19 pandemic instigated more extreme and rapid changes in how Christian practices are performed than any other event since the Reformation. Literally overnight, weekly religious rituals of all faiths around the world went online or perhaps to the drive-in. Rituals that mark and shape our lives were immediately and significantly upended. Traditional funerals were forbidden; baptisms were put on hold; lawyers and judges explored the legal requirements for “presence” in weddings, pondering the legality of virtual attendance; and the “whether,” “why,” and “how” of virtual Eucharist became hotly debated. Elements of our two guiding assumptions changed overnight: how rituals are performed and the context in which they are performed.
Many congregations decided, independently and immediately, to transition to online worship. Churches tried Zoom and Facebook Live and other platforms, often with a steep learning curve for both pastoral staff and congregants. Technology has been an enormous blessing in allowing communities to join together and ministries to continue. Miracles have happened—when the Spirit flowed through electronic devices and the isolation of quarantine was punctured by love. Communities of faith whose members found in-person worship inaccessible have been able to join their church families. There have also been heavy losses, too. Medical experts identified singing to be a potent means of transmitting the disease when people are together in person, and the tiny time lags in computer connections make real-time congregational singing online painful.
Some denominations decided to wait to celebrate the Eucharist until congregations could co-locate with the priest and eat the same consecrated elements. Others allowed for new ways of celebrating, with congregants bringing their own food and drink to their individual computers, attempting to be together—to partake of and become one body—from myriad locations. Some congregations even distributed consecrated elements to their congregants to be used in their next celebration of the Lord’s Table. Central to debates and decisions about celebrating the Eucharist has been the desire for the unity and nourishment of the sacrament for those living in social isolation and fear because of Covid-19. For many churches, the context of need was more important than how the Eucharist would be performed.
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The full article and the entire issue of Liturgy 36, no. 1 is available by personal subscription and through many libraries.
Shannon Craigo-Snell is professor of theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Todd E. Johnson, the current vice-president of The Liturgical Conference which publishes Liturgy, holds the Brehm Chair in Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
Shannon Craigo-Snell and Todd E. Johnson, “Pandemics, Protests, and Performances: Embodying Our Faith in an Unexpected Season––Introduction,” Liturgy 65, no.1 (2020): 1-7.