A New Season of COVID-19: Not just Survive, but Thrive

                                                            (See the video at this link)

Dear laity and clergy of the Mountain Sky Conference,

WINTER IS COMING

It is hard to believe that while temperatures are in the 80s and 90s across our conference, winter is indeed coming. Winters are harsh in the Mountain Sky Conference. Yet, we have learned how to not only survive winter but thrive.

That is the question I have posed to God as we enter into a new season of COVID-19: how can we not just survive but thrive.

All studies point to the fact that COVID-19 coupled with the flu will make this a very difficult few months. It is highly likely that we will be back to sheltering in place as a way to keep ourselves and others safe.

I want to thank you, all the clergy and laity of the Mountain Sky Conference who have worked so hard in the past five months to learn new ways of being in relationship together, new forms of worship, and new ministries to respond to the hurts and needs of your community during this COVID-19 pandemic. It has been exhausting, relentless work as we needed to pivot overnight and rethink ministry strategies.

I want to thank the COVID-19 Crisis Team for their hard work to provide resources and guidelines for us as we lived into this new moment. Lay and clergy leaders from across the Mountain Sky Conference worked hard, meeting weekly for five months, to ensure our churches had the tools and resources to pivot quickly into the new reality COVID-19 thrust us all.

What has become clear is that, while the crisis moment is over, the long-term work has begun. Scientists and the medical community all predict that we will see increased sickness and death due to both the seasonal flu and COVID-19. With that in mind, the Crisis Team has finished their work and the need for a new team has emerged: Ministry in a Time of COVID-19.

The purpose of this team is to help clergy and laity deepen tech skills in order to enhance the worship experience, provide information on emerging forms of pastoral care, offer stewardship resources, ways to engage in mission work in the community during this time and provide pathways for cooperative ministries so we can carry the burdens and move into the opportunities of this season together.

We are seeking people to serve on this team. Specifically we are in need of people with tech skills to help churches more fully move to online worship and ministry; mental health professionals and those with skills in recovery who can aid us as we ensure that while we are physically distant from each other during the gray days and long nights of winter, we will not be socially isolated; community organizers who can deepen connectionalism so that ministries will be strengthened because we are doing them together across our conference. If you are interested in helping, please contact my office. The first meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Secondly, I would like to invite each church’s relaunch chair to join me in a conversation about what you’ve learned these past few months, what best practices have emerged, and what you need from the conference and each other to enter into the new season of COVID-19. Information on registration will be available shortly.

As much as we’d like, there will never be a going back to a pre-COVID-19 normal. The world, and all of us, have been changed. And so has the church. In this moment, God is beckoning us to live into a new normal, a future with hope. I look forward to the work God would have us do as disciples of Jesus for the sake of our churches, our communities, and our world.

May God continue to bless you and your ministries. Be well. Stay safe. Wear a mask.

Bishop Karen P. Oliveto