Introduction

An Unexpected Journey Begins

In the middle of this year’s Lenten wilderness (2020), the world was thrust into the unprecedented public health crisis of COVID-19.  Grappling with how to respond and the complexities of ever-changing local, state, and national guidance, we all found ourselves in totally unfamiliar territory.  It is no surprise that in such wild, strange times, people of faith looked to ministers across a variety of settings for words and rituals of assurance, for virtual community, and for compassionate, socially-distanced presence.

To adapt our inherently embodied, incarnational work into ministries requiring limited or no physical contact continues to be a challenge to which faith leaders rise.  Through livestreams, recordings, and video conferencing; through postal mail and doorstep drop-offs; through phone calls, emails, and text messages; through art and music and stories.  Using about any medium and platform imaginable, ministers are supporting people of faith of all ages as we try to navigate and make sense of this challenging season together, but apart.

Collected here are sermons and prayers, poems and rituals, reflections and musings gathered from a diverse selection of Alumni from Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity.  These pastoral words represent efforts to meet the varied spiritual needs of congregations, hospital patients, students, senior living residents, families, and individuals in the face of this pandemic.  In them are moments of grief and longing, spaces of Sabbath rest, and even glimpses of hope.  They span the period from the third week of Lent, when many limitations on physical gatherings began, through Holy Week, all the way to Easter.

In these words, we hope you find whatever it is you may need: a resource to use in your own ministry, an idea that inspires renewed creativity, a bit of comfort or peace.  May this serve as a both a crocus bloom in the wilderness and touchstone to return to during this still-unfolding journey.  May it remind us that we are not alone.  That nothing can separate us from the love of God, and nothing can separate our hearts and lives from one another.  Indeed, may the love of God, the compassion of Jesus, and the movement of the Holy Spirit guide us through these challenges we face together.

Lindsey Altvater Clifton

Forest Hills Presbyterian Church, High Point, NC