Fig Tree - Faith leaders respond to crisis

Faith leaders share insights to help members adjust to time of COVID-19

Leaders of regional denominations—the Episcopal Diocese, Catholic Diocese, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Synod, the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest, the Inland Missional United Methodist District, the Disciples of Christ Northern Lights Region and the Pacific Northwest United Church of Christ Conferencehave been sharing insights to help people through these times.

They have been using emails, social media and websites to explore how to be a community of faith in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Mostly they are sharing among their congregations. These articles offer an opportunity for ecumenical sharing.

Each offers insights as they announce that they will not meet for worship and will stay away from each other—contrary to their understanding of faith.

The Fig Tree offers information from these faith leaders, because they sent information. It could not cover what all congregations or wider church entities are doing for lack of person power and time.

The Fig Tree encourages members of each faith community to connect with their congregations and regional bodies, and to use these times as an opportunity to connect ecumenically.

St. Clare's uses technology for worship, meetings

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the national emergency and the state "stay at home" order, St. Clare Ecumenical Catholic Communion has cancelled Sunday liturgies until further notice.

"We want to be prudent and keep our community safe," said Linda Kobe Smith on behalf of the team. "This is an unprecedented time with many in our community in the high risk population. We will maintain community through media, email and phone calls. We are sharing book groups and Sunday homilies through technology that brings us face-to-face. We are grateful for those who keep us connected.

"Our community is more than our Sunday liturgy," she said. "Eucharist is given and received in many forms."

Temple Beth Shalom finds ways to maintain community

Diane Lefcort, president of the Temple Beth Shalom Board, said that in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and based on input from the USCJ and statements released by Governor Jay Inslee, Temple Beth Shalom decided to be pro-active to reduce the spread of the virus and keep our community safe by cancelling all TBS events and classes through March. TBS plans to move to livestreaming services and are investigating offering some classes through an interactive platform such as ZOOM.

"This will be a challenging time and we will make every attempt to maintain community via multimedia, email and phone calls. We encourage you to stay in touch and let's help to take care of each other," said Diane.