Church Response
to the mental health challenges of lockdown
Paper by Silvia Purdie, 31 March 2020.
Full text as PDF here
A church response to the mental health challenges of self isolation begins from the starting point that the church is no longer able to do many of the things that churches normally do. Without normal routines of worship services, craft groups, preschool music groups and pastoral visitation, how can a church still be the church? If everyone is isolated will community die? A local church can be a powerhouse for community in times of isolation, but it will require creativity and trying new approaches. Several possibilities are emerging. These can be used both by clergy and pastoral staff as well as by congregation members. All are needed; a crisis challenges everyone to offer what they can, not just those appointed to particular roles.
Talk on the phone and online
It is important to stay connected with social networks as much as possible; in lockdown we have telephones and internet. The first task for ministers has been to use one to assess the usefulness of the other, i.e. to phone around the congregation and find out which members have access to the internet, social media, websites or email.
Churches are setting up ‘phone trees’ to encourage members to phone each other, and private groups on social media where people can share freely. Ensuring that people have each others’ phone numbers is an important practical step. My own experience is that most church members have only one or two others in a church whom they normally phone. Older folks tend to rely on regular routines of meeting at church or other groups, and are reluctant to use the phone to call someone unless there is a practical purpose. I was surprised as a Minister how few people ever called me, and when they did they would often apologise for doing so, as though they feared I would resent the intrusion. At this time we need to explicitly encourage people to communicate with others, both those they know well in the church and those they know less well.
The danger of relying on informal networks within the church is that some people are well connected and others feel on the outer. Only a systematic approach, based on up-to-date membership and contact information, will be effective in pastorally connecting with everyone in the congregation. This involves identifying who is gifted and called in pastoral communication, even when people don’t see themselves in that way.
Those of us in the ‘middling’ generations (e.g. GenX) are more likely to use social media such as Facebook, and be comfortable across a wide range of methods of communication, including land line phones, cell phones, social media messaging, video calls and emails. Young people (GenY & Millenials) use their phones for everything except making phone calls! They are reluctant to call someone unless they know them well. They rely on social media, using forums such as WhatsApp or Instagram. All this creates significant challenges for pastoral care in the lockdown. Those seeking to have pastoral conversations need to know individual preferences for communication, and be able to use a range of methods to connect.
Whatever the technology involved, the task of social connecting is the same: to listen and to support. Unfortunately some people in pastoral care are better talkers than listeners! A minister or pastoral co-ordinator needs to model good listening but also encourage relational skills that create space for genuine mutual sharing. This requires skills in allowing silence and spaces, and asking gentle probing questions. Another danger with pastoral care as it can sometimes be undertaken by people with the goal of cheering the other person up. While it can be helpful to ‘look on the bright side’, this can be counterproductive. I know from my own experience that someone else trying to make me feel better has the effect of me withholding my anxiety or struggles, as these do not feel acceptable or safe in the conversation.
The Anglican Bishops of Wellington expressed the challenge beautifully in their letter to the Diocese on 19 March: “This time of gathering in our homes is also an opportunity to encourage one another more closely and intimately than our corporate worship sometimes enables. The gift of friendship in Christ is a very, very precious gift. Our prayer for us all during this period, is that Christ will deepen our spiritual friendships with each other, as we support and help each other to hold to faith, hope and love.”[1]
Encourage mentally healthy strategies
Resource faith. Churches around the world are posting audio and video recordings, trying to get live streaming to work, and making worship material available in online and written form as best they can. Every day I am receiving information about new initiatives for collective prayer and online forums.
Prayer in anxiety. “When we call out for help, we are bound more powerfully to God through our needs and weakness, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems than we ever could have been through our joys, successes, and strengths alone.”[2] People offering pastoral and spiritual care to those in isolation are in a unique position to learn and teach skills for praying through stress. This could include praying with a person over the phone, sending out written prayers, setting times for collective prayer, etc. The key message for mental health is that the darker emotions are part of the Christian journey and that patterns of faith are effective tools for managing anxiety.
Resource solitude. This time of self isolation is forcing many people into solitude.[3] Being alone is not something which is encouraged in our society, or our churches, and it requires some skill to enter into as a spiritually creative space. A booklet from Kopua Monastery describes it well: “We live in a busy, busy world where time alone is not always rewarded. So, solitude does take effort and persisitence. It is when we are most by ourselves that we realize God is actually right there with us. At that point the solitude allows us to grow closer to God as we begin to address the things going on in our lives, thoughts, and existence. We are able to see clearly, through a Godly perspective, what is important in our lives.”[4]
Manage information overload. Reducing anxiety requires managing what is coming in. We need enough information about the crisis but not too much, and we need accurate information not sensationalism. The church has a role to play as a trusted source of information. Mao quotes Aiysha Malik from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, World Health Organization. "A repeated message for managing fear in the COVID-19 response is to get facts. Facts minimize fear.”[5]
It can also be good to encourage people to limit their exposure to news. Research after the 9/11 terrorist attacks found that people who watched lots of news coverage were more likely to have long-term post traumatic stress than the people who were escaped the burning buildings. “The more graphic television coverage of the attacks a person had watched in the intervening time, the more likely they were to report the major symptoms” of PTSD.[6] A helpful message is, ‘It’s OK to turn it off’.
Go outside. A major review of studies into the effects on human health of contact with nature found that “results consistently show that nature contact reduces stress.”[7] A key reason for this is that the mental stimulation of being in a natural environment captures attention effortlessly, which “engages a less taxing, indirect form of attention, thereby facilitating recovery of directed attention capacity”. Frumkin et.al. also draw attention to the importance of awe and mystery: “awe—the sense of wonder, amazement, and smallness that may occur in response to perceptually vast stimuli”; “mystery—the allure of seeing and knowing more by entering more deeply into a setting”, as well as benefits for immunity and social interaction.[8] Being outside also promotes physical exercise, which is well proven to benefit both physical and mental health.
Christian faith has a deep spirituality of respect for the natural world, with many people reporting that they feel ‘close to God in nature’. The current crisis can push the church to become less focused around our buildings and to make more use of local green spaces as places to meet.[9] Meeting in a park for a ‘walk and talk’ keeps people safe from contagion (so long as they do not also share transport or touch and don’t stand too close), and also promotes spirituality, emotional connection, physical and mental health.[10]
Cheer on creativity. Churches have a marvellous potential in encouraging creativity. Many churches have craft or music groups, and these should continue to function via social media. Groups can stay in touch with each other and encourage members to post pictures of creative projects, or recordings of music. Some preschool music groups are experimenting with ‘zoom’. Networks can enable people to share poetry and other writings, or alternatively gardening and garage projects. Solitude and plenty of time on our hands requires and enables us to get creative, and this is also a significant resilience in mental health. Churches need to celebrate every achievement!
Support those working with the poor
In lockdown churches are not considered to be an essential, but welfare agencies are. Our church agencies dealing with poverty, homelessness and domestic violence are busier than ever, yet it is a natural tendency in ‘shut-down’ to reduce our focus to only the people closest to us. The church has a responsibility to continue to actively support, both financially and spiritually, those who serve the poor, both locally and globally.
The Covid-19 pandemic and global lockdown is causing immense human suffering. Churches have a vital role to play in pastoral support for their own congregations, but also demonstrating love and faith however they can. While our physical health is threatened by illness, mental health is also a high priority; “connection to people and good mental health are intrinsically linked, and both things are at risk during this pandemic.”[11] The US National Center for Child Traumatic Stress suggests a five-pronged approach to promote mental and emotional well-being during and after a disaster: "promoting a sense of safety, promoting calming, promoting a sense of self-efficacy and community efficacy, promoting connectedness and instilling hope."[12] The Christian Church is well established to offer these in our communities, though it does require of us very different strategies than how we normally function.
[1] Justin Duckworth and Eleanor Sanderson, “Being the Body of Christ: Bishops’ Pastoral Letter”,19 March 2020. Movement Online website, accessed 20 March 2020.
<http://movementonline.org.nz/14641/being-the-body-of-christ/>
[2] Brian McLaren, “Praying in Crisis.” 25 March 2020. Centre for Contemplation and Action website, accessed 31 March 2020. <https://cac.org/praying-in-crisis-2020-03-25/>
[3] The exception is those families with young children, who are likely to have precious little time to themselves!
[4] Solitude, unpublished booklet, Southern Star Abbey, Kopua Monastery, Norsewood NZ.
[5] Wen Mao. “Managing mental health during coronavirus - experts around the world share insights”. World Economic Forum website, accessed 18 March 2020. <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid19-coronavirus-mental-health-expert-insights/
[6] Katherine Harmon, “The Changing Mental Health Aftermath of 9/11.” Scientific American website, viewed 30 March 2020.
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-changing-mental-health/>
[7] Howard Frumkin, Gregory N. Bratman, Sara Jo Breslow, et al. "Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda." Environmental Health Perspectives (Online) 125, no. 7 (07, 2017).
[8] ibid.
[9] Ambra Burls explores the multiple level of benefits from green spaces. "People and Green Spaces: Promoting Public Health and Mental Well-being through Ecotherapy." Journal of Public Mental Health 6, no. 3 (09, 2007): 24-39.
[10] Currently under ‘Alert Level 4 lockdown’ even this level of social contact is prohibited.
[11] Wen Mao, “Managing mental health during coronavirus.”
[12] Quoted by Katherine Harmon, “The Changing Mental Health Aftermath of 9/11.”
Full text as PDF here
A church response to the mental health challenges of self isolation begins from the starting point that the church is no longer able to do many of the things that churches normally do. Without normal routines of worship services, craft groups, preschool music groups and pastoral visitation, how can a church still be the church? If everyone is isolated will community die? A local church can be a powerhouse for community in times of isolation, but it will require creativity and trying new approaches. Several possibilities are emerging. These can be used both by clergy and pastoral staff as well as by congregation members. All are needed; a crisis challenges everyone to offer what they can, not just those appointed to particular roles.
Talk on the phone and online
It is important to stay connected with social networks as much as possible; in lockdown we have telephones and internet. The first task for ministers has been to use one to assess the usefulness of the other, i.e. to phone around the congregation and find out which members have access to the internet, social media, websites or email.
Churches are setting up ‘phone trees’ to encourage members to phone each other, and private groups on social media where people can share freely. Ensuring that people have each others’ phone numbers is an important practical step. My own experience is that most church members have only one or two others in a church whom they normally phone. Older folks tend to rely on regular routines of meeting at church or other groups, and are reluctant to use the phone to call someone unless there is a practical purpose. I was surprised as a Minister how few people ever called me, and when they did they would often apologise for doing so, as though they feared I would resent the intrusion. At this time we need to explicitly encourage people to communicate with others, both those they know well in the church and those they know less well.
The danger of relying on informal networks within the church is that some people are well connected and others feel on the outer. Only a systematic approach, based on up-to-date membership and contact information, will be effective in pastorally connecting with everyone in the congregation. This involves identifying who is gifted and called in pastoral communication, even when people don’t see themselves in that way.
Those of us in the ‘middling’ generations (e.g. GenX) are more likely to use social media such as Facebook, and be comfortable across a wide range of methods of communication, including land line phones, cell phones, social media messaging, video calls and emails. Young people (GenY & Millenials) use their phones for everything except making phone calls! They are reluctant to call someone unless they know them well. They rely on social media, using forums such as WhatsApp or Instagram. All this creates significant challenges for pastoral care in the lockdown. Those seeking to have pastoral conversations need to know individual preferences for communication, and be able to use a range of methods to connect.
Whatever the technology involved, the task of social connecting is the same: to listen and to support. Unfortunately some people in pastoral care are better talkers than listeners! A minister or pastoral co-ordinator needs to model good listening but also encourage relational skills that create space for genuine mutual sharing. This requires skills in allowing silence and spaces, and asking gentle probing questions. Another danger with pastoral care as it can sometimes be undertaken by people with the goal of cheering the other person up. While it can be helpful to ‘look on the bright side’, this can be counterproductive. I know from my own experience that someone else trying to make me feel better has the effect of me withholding my anxiety or struggles, as these do not feel acceptable or safe in the conversation.
The Anglican Bishops of Wellington expressed the challenge beautifully in their letter to the Diocese on 19 March: “This time of gathering in our homes is also an opportunity to encourage one another more closely and intimately than our corporate worship sometimes enables. The gift of friendship in Christ is a very, very precious gift. Our prayer for us all during this period, is that Christ will deepen our spiritual friendships with each other, as we support and help each other to hold to faith, hope and love.”[1]
Encourage mentally healthy strategies
Resource faith. Churches around the world are posting audio and video recordings, trying to get live streaming to work, and making worship material available in online and written form as best they can. Every day I am receiving information about new initiatives for collective prayer and online forums.
Prayer in anxiety. “When we call out for help, we are bound more powerfully to God through our needs and weakness, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems than we ever could have been through our joys, successes, and strengths alone.”[2] People offering pastoral and spiritual care to those in isolation are in a unique position to learn and teach skills for praying through stress. This could include praying with a person over the phone, sending out written prayers, setting times for collective prayer, etc. The key message for mental health is that the darker emotions are part of the Christian journey and that patterns of faith are effective tools for managing anxiety.
Resource solitude. This time of self isolation is forcing many people into solitude.[3] Being alone is not something which is encouraged in our society, or our churches, and it requires some skill to enter into as a spiritually creative space. A booklet from Kopua Monastery describes it well: “We live in a busy, busy world where time alone is not always rewarded. So, solitude does take effort and persisitence. It is when we are most by ourselves that we realize God is actually right there with us. At that point the solitude allows us to grow closer to God as we begin to address the things going on in our lives, thoughts, and existence. We are able to see clearly, through a Godly perspective, what is important in our lives.”[4]
Manage information overload. Reducing anxiety requires managing what is coming in. We need enough information about the crisis but not too much, and we need accurate information not sensationalism. The church has a role to play as a trusted source of information. Mao quotes Aiysha Malik from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, World Health Organization. "A repeated message for managing fear in the COVID-19 response is to get facts. Facts minimize fear.”[5]
It can also be good to encourage people to limit their exposure to news. Research after the 9/11 terrorist attacks found that people who watched lots of news coverage were more likely to have long-term post traumatic stress than the people who were escaped the burning buildings. “The more graphic television coverage of the attacks a person had watched in the intervening time, the more likely they were to report the major symptoms” of PTSD.[6] A helpful message is, ‘It’s OK to turn it off’.
Go outside. A major review of studies into the effects on human health of contact with nature found that “results consistently show that nature contact reduces stress.”[7] A key reason for this is that the mental stimulation of being in a natural environment captures attention effortlessly, which “engages a less taxing, indirect form of attention, thereby facilitating recovery of directed attention capacity”. Frumkin et.al. also draw attention to the importance of awe and mystery: “awe—the sense of wonder, amazement, and smallness that may occur in response to perceptually vast stimuli”; “mystery—the allure of seeing and knowing more by entering more deeply into a setting”, as well as benefits for immunity and social interaction.[8] Being outside also promotes physical exercise, which is well proven to benefit both physical and mental health.
Christian faith has a deep spirituality of respect for the natural world, with many people reporting that they feel ‘close to God in nature’. The current crisis can push the church to become less focused around our buildings and to make more use of local green spaces as places to meet.[9] Meeting in a park for a ‘walk and talk’ keeps people safe from contagion (so long as they do not also share transport or touch and don’t stand too close), and also promotes spirituality, emotional connection, physical and mental health.[10]
Cheer on creativity. Churches have a marvellous potential in encouraging creativity. Many churches have craft or music groups, and these should continue to function via social media. Groups can stay in touch with each other and encourage members to post pictures of creative projects, or recordings of music. Some preschool music groups are experimenting with ‘zoom’. Networks can enable people to share poetry and other writings, or alternatively gardening and garage projects. Solitude and plenty of time on our hands requires and enables us to get creative, and this is also a significant resilience in mental health. Churches need to celebrate every achievement!
Support those working with the poor
In lockdown churches are not considered to be an essential, but welfare agencies are. Our church agencies dealing with poverty, homelessness and domestic violence are busier than ever, yet it is a natural tendency in ‘shut-down’ to reduce our focus to only the people closest to us. The church has a responsibility to continue to actively support, both financially and spiritually, those who serve the poor, both locally and globally.
The Covid-19 pandemic and global lockdown is causing immense human suffering. Churches have a vital role to play in pastoral support for their own congregations, but also demonstrating love and faith however they can. While our physical health is threatened by illness, mental health is also a high priority; “connection to people and good mental health are intrinsically linked, and both things are at risk during this pandemic.”[11] The US National Center for Child Traumatic Stress suggests a five-pronged approach to promote mental and emotional well-being during and after a disaster: "promoting a sense of safety, promoting calming, promoting a sense of self-efficacy and community efficacy, promoting connectedness and instilling hope."[12] The Christian Church is well established to offer these in our communities, though it does require of us very different strategies than how we normally function.
[1] Justin Duckworth and Eleanor Sanderson, “Being the Body of Christ: Bishops’ Pastoral Letter”,19 March 2020. Movement Online website, accessed 20 March 2020.
<http://movementonline.org.nz/14641/being-the-body-of-christ/>
[2] Brian McLaren, “Praying in Crisis.” 25 March 2020. Centre for Contemplation and Action website, accessed 31 March 2020. <https://cac.org/praying-in-crisis-2020-03-25/>
[3] The exception is those families with young children, who are likely to have precious little time to themselves!
[4] Solitude, unpublished booklet, Southern Star Abbey, Kopua Monastery, Norsewood NZ.
[5] Wen Mao. “Managing mental health during coronavirus - experts around the world share insights”. World Economic Forum website, accessed 18 March 2020. <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid19-coronavirus-mental-health-expert-insights/
[6] Katherine Harmon, “The Changing Mental Health Aftermath of 9/11.” Scientific American website, viewed 30 March 2020.
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-changing-mental-health/>
[7] Howard Frumkin, Gregory N. Bratman, Sara Jo Breslow, et al. "Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda." Environmental Health Perspectives (Online) 125, no. 7 (07, 2017).
[8] ibid.
[9] Ambra Burls explores the multiple level of benefits from green spaces. "People and Green Spaces: Promoting Public Health and Mental Well-being through Ecotherapy." Journal of Public Mental Health 6, no. 3 (09, 2007): 24-39.
[10] Currently under ‘Alert Level 4 lockdown’ even this level of social contact is prohibited.
[11] Wen Mao, “Managing mental health during coronavirus.”
[12] Quoted by Katherine Harmon, “The Changing Mental Health Aftermath of 9/11.”