‘The people are no longer the same’

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This article was published 20/06/2020 (2266 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The worship spaces may be familiar, but the people returning to them are different before the global pandemic, cautions a United Church minister who specializes in trauma counselling.

“The problem is not the worship service or the experience is no longer the same,” says Rev. Diane Strickland from her summer home near Brockville, Ont.

“The people are no longer the same.”

That’s because the trauma of shutdowns because of COVID-19 has impacted people personally through job losses, isolation, and lack of routine, and also through collective trauma as they monitor the status of the virus within their family and friendship circles, cities, provinces, and the entire country, says Strickland, who was ordained 32 years ago.

“Not only do we have the trauma, we have the regular (stuff) going on,” explains the community and workplace traumatologist and compassion fatigue specialist.

“And the support system wasn’t there.”

So as restrictions around public gatherings loosen, people heading back to services in synagogues, mosques, temples or churches may react negatively to the changes, she says.

First of all everyone has to realize worship won’t be the same when people sit two metres apart and can’t sing together because of the increased risk of spreading COVID-19 through airborne droplets, says Strickland, a former minister at Winnipeg’s First Presbyterian Church who now leads trauma workshops and consults during crises and disasters.

Trauma from all the changes caused by the pandemic can also cause past hurts and injustices to surface, says Strickland, who released a series of YouTube videos under the heading pandemic practicums (http://wfp.to/3GC).

“We get people whose resilience is worn down and whose need is great, and we bring them back to a place they don’t recognize, I’m afraid that the first few times people will say ‘I can’t do it again,’ I’m afraid they will detach.”

That detachment and other losses of familiar rituals and practices will lead to what is called the “second disaster” in disaster management, which generally hits a year after the initial issue, says Strickland, who consulted after floods in High River, Alta., and the Fort McMurray fires.

“The second disaster is the moment you realize some of the changes are going to be permanent and you will not recover the past,” says Strickland, who splits her time between Calgary and a summer home near Brockville, Ont.

“That’s a pretty sobering moment when people understand it.”

Although the size of indoor groups may increase to 50, Rev. Shannon McCarthy urges United Churches under her care not to rush to reopen. Instead, she says, continue with the online or virtual services, plan for September and enjoy the summer at the cottage or campground.

“The urgency to restart is we want everything to be back to normal,” says McCarthy, executive minister for three Western Canada regions, including Prairie to Pine, which includes Manitoba.

“We’re going to be retraumatizing people. What they expect is not what it’s going to be.”

That’s been the experience of Winnipegger Luchie Sanchez, who has attended a few masses at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, which pre-pandemic had more than 10,000 parishioners attending seven weekend masses. Instead of filling the church to capacity, parishioners must sign up and wait their turn to attend one of four Sunday masses, answer screening questions, and only sit in designated areas. After the service, each worshiper sanitizes the pew they had just occupied with wipes and spray and is urged not to linger in the foyer.

“Our church is (usually) so full and overflowing,” says the member of the parish council.

“And then you come in and it feels like you’re alone.”

Now writing a primer on trauma, Strickland says people of faith can seek inspiration from stories of huge disasters such as floods, fires, exiles and deaths of great leaders found in sacred texts. She suggests Christians look to the New Testament accounts of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, where Jesus’s followers taking a long time to accept the resurrection and recover from the news of his death.

“Nobody was happy immediately, nobody forgot,” she says.

That’s also the message for dealing with the multiple effects of the coronavirus pandemic, suggests Strickland. Remember the pain, recognize life has changed and carry on.

“That’s what life is. We can recover,” she says.

“We are diminished by this, but we can also become more.”

brenda@suderman.com

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