As we mark various one year anniversaries of the COVID-19 pandemic and broader emergencies, specific actions and responses of faith communities - for example on Ash Wednesday for Christians on February 17 - continue to highlight the breadth and diversity of religious dimensions across the world. But these responses are increasingly intertwined with broader social, economic, and political events. Thus, plans for the 2021 G20 Interfaith Forum (September 12-14 in Bologna) emphasize a theme of healing that links obvious health and COVID-related healing to far broader themes of violence and political and social polarization. As we review faith-specific responses we also explore instances of what we term “the dogs that did not bark,” meaning analyses and narratives that are deaf and blind to faith engagement (an admittedly tough task). Overall, we welcome feedback and ideas on specific events, faith dimensions of broader trends, and missing elements. See below for submission instructions. 
 
Vaccination dominates news reports, activism, and advocacy. Global concerns about “vaccine nationalism” and practical and ethical challenges in highly inequitable initial vaccine rollouts continue, with numerous faith voices raised. Meanwhile intensive experience with vaccination campaigns, especially in the United States and Israel, suggest lessons overall and specifically on faith engagement. Examples include places of worship as vaccination sites (general; Washington, DC) and both advocacy and action to address equity issues, need for strong messaging, and deliberate efforts to address fears and resistance. Resistance can be both broad and local, taking as an example Brazilian indigenous communities’ focus on medicinal plants. Some efforts are underway to draw on prior experience with immunization campaigns. A wide variety of events and messages seek both to persuade and to understand reluctance. For example, to explore what American clergy are doing to support the vaccine effort, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the former CEO of the Conservative Jewish movement’s Rabbinical Assembly and now a master’s candidate at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health, is interviewing a series of faith leaders about their traditions’ views on public health and vaccination, and this vaccination effort. An article with a tantalizing title (“We’re being too Protestant about the vaccine rollout”) highlights both priority needs and complexities: “We need to look for systematic abuses and inequalities of the vaccine distribution system, such as racial disparities, and strive to right those. The Trump administration, which peddled bogus election theories when it could have been developing a more comprehensive plan for the vaccine rollout, should be held accountable. But our nation’s ongoing fascination with individual instances of vaccine line-cutting is doing much more to distract us from our common goal of herd immunity than to achieve it.”
 
Heartening stories of generous, creative, and selfless community responses to people and communities in need continue. Our early hunch that the “map” including trends and extent will never be fully known is borne out by the scattered information. This is understandable given the scale and diversity, but it stands to detract from broader efforts both to understand and to build on positive experience. Another current is the reminders of the human suffering that crises begin, and needs for compassion - one example is a call from Sri Lanka, and another is the pain of funeral directors.
 
Predicted shifts in religious practices, organizations, and relationships with governments and other societies continue with patchy evidence of change - this article highlights shifts in Israel’s Haredi (Orthodox) communities, alongside analyses from last week that focus on resistance to COVID messages and policies in those communities. Other shifts grow from continuing tensions especially over lockdowns (South Africa).

Many webinar events bring new insights and highlight trends. An especially interesting Ahimsa Foundation event on February 2 highlighted COVID-19 related action and responses by three leading faith-linked institutions: Pastoral da Crianza (Cathollic, Brazil), Sarvodaya (Buddhist, Sri Lanka), and Muhammadiyah (Muslim, Indonesia).