Conversations
  • Home
  • Books
  • Sustainability
    • Climate Action
    • Integrity
    • Rubbish Challenge
    • Mental health
    • Consultancy
    • Policy
    • Carbon
    • Waste
    • Plastic
    • Safe-to-fail
  • Creation
    • Awhi: Women in Creation Care
    • Climate Theology
    • Earth Day
    • Wellbeing and Climate Change
    • Heaven and Earth
    • Prayers
    • Worship resources
    • Life, the Universe, and God study
    • Eco Church Story
    • Maori & the environment
    • 12 Motivations for EcoMission
    • Motivation and Calling
    • Eco Mission
    • Eco-Mission in NZ
    • Science
  • Worship
    • Advent & Christmas >
      • Advent
      • Christmas
      • Nativity Plays
    • Easter >
      • Lent: Journey in Psalms
      • Maundy Thursday
      • Good Friday
      • Easter Day
      • Passover meal
    • Pentecost
    • Hold the World Gently
    • Kids & all-age worship
    • Call to Worship
    • Confession
    • Communion
    • Blessings
    • Bilingual & Te Reo
    • Baptism
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Night Prayer
    • Trinity
    • Quiet
    • Worship songs
    • Kids songs
    • More Worship Resources >
      • Creeds
      • Lords Prayer variations
      • Little Linking Bits
      • Celtic Prayers
      • Harvest
      • Healing
      • Commissioning
      • A new ministry
      • Journal Reflection resource for Lent
      • Liturgy of the Elements
      • Spirit who defies defining
      • Pet Blessing
      • Psalms in Worship
      • Ephesians worship resources
    • Poem-Prayers >
      • Pictures in my home
      • Slow things
      • Does the sea love me?
      • Drop
      • Tipped out
      • Silence
      • The Swallowed Sword
      • More of You
      • Sometimes
      • Jerusalem Dawning
      • Hopewell Psalm
      • The Visitor's Psalm
      • The Seagull’s Psalm
      • Leunig
  • Psalms
    • Psalms 1-10 >
      • Psalm 1: The Two Ways
      • Psalm 2: Wrath on a hill
      • Psalm 3: The Shield around me
      • Psalm 4: I rest in you
      • Psalm 5: Coming Home
      • Psalm 6: Worn with weeping
      • Psalm 7: The fury of my enemies
      • Psalm 8: Out of the mouths of babes
      • Psalm 9: The weeds and the wheat
      • Psalm 10: Why, Lord, why??
    • Psalms 11-20 >
      • Psalm 11: The XBox Psalm
      • Psalm 12: As in the days of Noah
      • Psalm 13: How long??
      • Psalm 14: All fall short
      • Psalm 15: Be Do-ers of The Word
      • Psalm 16: Fullness of Joy
      • Psalm 17: Under attack
      • Psalm 18: Part A - In Christ
      • Psalm 18: Part B- The Volcano Psalm
      • Psalm 18: Part C- Jesus’ Resurrection Song
      • Psalm 18: Part D- The Superman Psalm
      • Psalm 19: Song of the Stars
      • Psalm 20: God bless you!
    • Psalms 21-30 >
      • Psalm 21: Honouring a godly leader
      • Psalm 22: The Crucifixion Psalm
      • Psalm 23: A Collection
      • Psalm 24: Lift up the Ancient Doors
      • Psalm 25: The Covenant Way
      • Psalm 26: True North
      • Psalm 27: Take courage, my heart!
      • Psalm 28: Are you listening?
      • Psalm 29: The Hurricane Psalm
      • Psalm 30: Joy in the morning
    • Psalms 31-40 >
      • Psalm 31: Strength in exhaustion
      • Psalm 32: The Horse-Trainer's Psalm
      • Psalm 33: Rejoice today!
      • Psalm 34: Always Praising!
      • Psalm 35: Trapped and slandered
      • Psalm 36: Far-Reaching Love
      • Psalm 37: Keep Calm and Carry On
      • Psalm 38: The Burn-out Psalm
      • Psalm 39: A crisis of purpose
      • Psalm 40: The Mud Psalm
    • Psalm 41-50 >
      • Psalm 41: Bad friends
      • Psalm 42: As a deer
      • Psalm 43: A walk of faith
      • Psalm 44: A formal complaint
      • Psalm 45: The Royal Wedding
      • Psalm 46: We will not fear!
      • Psalm 47: A Shout of Praise
      • Psalm 48: Hymn to Jerusalem
      • Psalm 49: Death and Taxes
      • Psalm 50: True Worship
    • Psalms 51-60 >
      • Psalm 51: Standing under the shower of Confession
      • Psalm 52: God sees through
      • Psalm 53: No God?
      • Psalm 54: Help me now as you’ve helped me before
      • Psalm 55: Betrayed by your best friend
      • Psalm 56: The Worrywort’s Psalm
      • Psalm 57: Wake up the day
      • Psalm 58: The Snake Psalm
      • Psalm 59: Safe in the Tower
      • Psalm 60: The Earthquake Psalm
    • Psalms 61-70 >
      • Psalm 61: Can you hear me, God?
      • Psalm 62: Wait in Silence
      • Psalm 63: Hide and Seek
      • Psalm 64: It's not OK!
      • Psalm 65: He’s got the whole world in his hands!
      • Psalm 66: Come and hear!
      • Psalm 67: All you peoples praise!
      • Psalm 68: Gifts for his people
      • Psalm 69: The Mud Psalm
      • Psalm 70: Hurry up!
    • Psalms 71-80 >
      • Psalm 71: All our lives long
      • Psalm 72: Long live the King!
      • Psalm 73: The Jealous Psalm
      • Psalm 74: Destruction and persecution
      • Psalm 75: The pillars of the earth
      • Psalm 76: Weapons of war
      • Psalm 77: The Sleepless Psalm
      • Psalm 78: Tell our story to our children
      • Psalm 79: The terrible prison
      • Psalm 80: God’s shining smile
    • Psalms 81-90 >
      • Psalm 81: Honey from the rock
      • Psalm 82: The Judge’s Judgment
      • Psalm 83: The enemies of Israel
      • Psalm 84: How lovely is your house
      • Psalm 85: See what God is doing!
      • Psalm 86: An undivided heart
      • Psalm 87: The Census Psalm
      • Psalm 88: The Rejection Psalm
      • Psalm 89: The Chosen One
      • Psalm 90: A puff of dust
    • Psalms 91-100 >
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Psalm 92: Saying thanks at bedtime
      • Psalm 93: Water rising
      • Psalm 94: Praying for a world in trouble
      • Psalm 95: Come let us sing for joy
      • Psalm 96: Words run out
      • Psalm 97: Rejoice, the Lord is King!
      • Psalm 98: Sing along a new song
      • Psalm 99: If you shake us
      • Psalm 100: The joyful parade
    • Psalms 101-110 >
      • Psalm 101: Call me loyal
      • Psalm 102: The time has come!
      • Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul
      • Psalm 104: Psalm for Aotearoa
      • Psalms 105, 106 & 107: History Psalms
      • Psalm 108: A wake-up call
      • Psalm 109: SO ANGRY!!
      • Psalm 110: All about Jesus
    • Psalm 111-120 >
      • Psalm 111: Praise the Lord, now and forever!
      • Psalm 112: Welcome to the good life!
      • Psalm 113: From the rising of the sun
      • Psalm 114: Skipping mountains
      • Psalm 115: Toy gods
      • Psalm 116: Death could not hold me down
      • Psalm 117: The Shortest Psalm
      • Psalm 118: Pointing to the risen Lord
      • Psalm 119: The Longest Psalm
      • Psalm 120: Speaking peace at home
    • Psalm 121-130 >
      • Psalm 121: The Bodyguard
      • Psalm 122: The Peace of Jerusalem
      • Psalm 123: Asking for help
      • Psalm 124: Like a mouse
      • Psalm 125: Good Balance
      • Psalm 126: A harvest of joy
      • Psalm 127: The Lord builds the house
      • Psalm 128: Live long and prosper
      • Psalm 129: Attacked and whipped
      • Psalm 130: The Dawn Psalm
    • Psalms 131-140 >
      • Psalm 131: Calm and Quiet
      • Psalm 132: The Forever King
      • Psalm 133: Living in Unity
      • Psalm 134: A circle of blessing
      • Psalm 135: Come on, people, praise!
      • Psalm 136: Endless love
      • Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon
      • Psalm 138: Thank you for your love!
      • Psalm 139: The Omniscience Psalm
      • Psalm 140: Our God saves
    • Psalms 141-150 >
      • Psalm 141: The Goody-good’s Psalm
      • Psalm 142: Brought Low
      • Psalm 143: A Psalm for Easter Saturday
      • Psalm 144: Blessed are God’s People
      • Psalm 145: We will tell your praise
      • Psalm 146: God at Work
      • Psalm 147: The Winter Psalm
      • Psalm 148: Calling all creation!
      • Psalm 149: The Double Edged Sword
      • Psalm 150: Kiwi Praise!?
    • About Psalms >
      • Jesus and Psalms
      • Violence in Psalms
      • History Psalms, a discussion of 105 & 106
      • Brueggeman on Psalms
    • Psalms in Worship
    • Advent & Christmas Psalms
    • Lectionary Psalms
  • Word
    • Te Reo Māori and faith
    • Listen!
    • Nurture the Holy Spirit
    • The Bible >
      • Making Sense of the Bible
      • People and Stories >
        • Three Wise Men
        • Martha and Mary
        • Samuel & David
        • Bit Parts
        • James who??
        • Joseph
        • Peter's Wife
        • Bible Love stories
      • John
      • Acts
      • Christmas
      • Easter
      • Dramatic readings
    • God
    • Jesus
    • Life
    • Church
    • Spirituality
    • Identity
    • End Times
    • Israel >
      • Israel: Tough questions
      • Israel: Stories in Place
      • Theological Alleyways
      • Lovely Ladies
  • Ministry
    • Moving On
    • Ethics
    • Fatigue
    • Spirit ministry
    • Pastoral Preaching
    • Maori Ministry
    • Minister's Grief in Ministry Transition
    • When the shit hits the fan
    • This Sacred Moment
    • Poems on ministry
    • Leadership resources
    • Promoting church
    • Musings
    • Pandemic >
      • Short of Breath Theological reflection
      • Stress
      • Alone Together
      • Pangolins and the Fall
      • Mental Health factors
      • Church response
      • Psalm 91: An Invitation to Deeper Prayer
      • Quiet
      • Solitude
    • Burning Bush
  • Supervision
    • Should I sack my supervisor??
    • Supervision FAQs
    • Supervision with Silvia
    • Why supervision?
    • What to bring to supervision?
    • Methods in supervision
    • Ethics in supervision
    • Pastoral Supervision
    • Qualifications
  • Counselling
    • Counselling with Silvia
    • Non-Anxious Living
    • Relationship Repair Kit
    • Poems on therapy
  • Love
    • Love Poems >
      • How to say 'I love you'?
      • The Fabric of Love
      • Be at home in my heart
      • Falling
      • Out of thin air
      • After the waves
      • Mid-life Menagerie
      • How are you?
      • Vacuum
      • Marriage Maths
    • Marriage >
      • Wedding Vows
      • Anniversaries
      • Ethics & Commitment
      • Expectations
      • Desire
      • Emotional Needs
    • Personality
    • Listening
    • Creativity
    • Laughter
    • Trauma/Recovery
    • Stress
    • Motherhood and Spirituality
    • Growing: Human & faith development
    • Dementia
    • Grief >
      • Experience of grief
      • Making sense of death
      • A Grieving of Poems
    • The hardest thing: youth suicide
  • About
    • Contact
    • Family History
    • Pumpkins on the road
    • Trip >
      • Hong Kong & Freising
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • England
      • San Francisco
      • Ben's page
  • Heke te ua

Church Response
​to the mental health challenges of lockdown

Picture
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.”
www.conversations.net.nz
Written by Silvia Purdie 

Resources for life and faith
Proudly powered by Weebly