Watching churches respond & adjust to need for social distancing has been both encouraging & revealing. A couple things have struck me:
1) Folks w/out developed theology of embodiment are obviously having easiest time of transitioning to virtual options. Those w/ it are doing okay, too, b/c they understand virus as a *bodily* threat to be respected. They're postponing & staying in touch & waiting it out.
Ironically, however, those still developing theology of body or for whom it's an acquired doctrine are ones most perplexed. They've come to value embodied gathering (vs. digital options) but the embodied threat of a virus is coming up against that.
There's enough recognition of embodied life to understand why something like live streaming can't replace communion & gathered body. But they're still developing a theology of the body *in brokenness.*
2) Times like these help you understand the significance of OT religious cycle, liturgical calendar, & something like Book of Common Prayer. People at a distance need structures to bind them together.
Such liturgies are increasingly popular in evangelicalism, but until now, they've been more personal preference than need. They are fulfilling or they create community w/ a body, but given modern context, those who adopt them do in an oddly individualistic way.
But suddenly we've been thrown into a space in which even non-liturgical churches must find ways to maintain community while individual members are distanced from each other. One way is to created shared spiritual practices & daily rhythms.
(E.g. That message you've gotten about everyone joining together at 7 pm to pray against the coronavirus. Yeah, that's a liturgy of common prayer.)
3) We're discovering what "regular" gathering of the body means. This is particularly interesting to me as a woman who's given birth three times.
The thought of not being in corporate gathering for weeks on end immediately sent me back to the weeks immediately after birth & caring for young infants.
The disruption of regular attendance, b/c of birth, staying home w/ sick kids, etc., is not unknown to mothers. There would be weeks at a time that I couldn't go to church or participate in a meaningful way.
This is when I first began to learn theology of the body. This is when I first began to understand that the limits placed on my earthly body were real & no measure of my spiritual faithfulness.
So I'm honestly not worried about the possibility of churches not gathering for several weeks in order to honor bodily limits. I'm sad. But I'm not worried.
Instead, my experience tells me that the time away increases your desire to gather. It whets your appetite. It builds desire & commitment. What you once took for granted, you now long for.
(Also, cf pioneer & mountain communities who had to rely on circuit riding preachers & traveling priests to hold official church services.)
I understand the need to maintain church community & fellowship thru this season, but can I suggest that the goal is not to replicate what can only happen when the church gathers.
Instead, this season of extended distance is an opportunity to develop private rhythms of shared practice. It is an opportunity to learn the limits of our bodies while simultaneously learning the transcendence of the fellowship of the Spirit.
Pastors, lead your people this way. Help them establish common daily rhythms of prayer & Scripture reading that will stabilize them in their isolation. Acknowledge the loss of embodied fellowship and teach them the goodness of longing for the reunion to come.
(PS--Also see: the "churching of women" a ritual developed to welcome women back to church gathering/eucharist after birth & "lying in" & to thank God for bringing them safely through it. Might be a model for us when we can finally gather again.)
