#199
Assessing Longer-Term COVID-19 Emergency Impact

The two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization's declaration of a global pandemic emergency on March 11, 2022 is sparking reflections (including by the Religious Responses to COVID-19 project team) on the pandemic’s lasting impact, even as the Ukraine war has dominated headlines. Reflections include the interconnected religious dimensions. A striking personal story of Abu Mumin, published in the Huffington Post, is an example. Founder of the charity 13 Rivers Trust, which runs the Muslim Burial Fund in the United Kingdom and Sylhet Aid and Rescue Orphans programs, he describes himself as “a proud Muslim and Bangladeshi dad,” as well as someone who lost family and friends from COVID-19. During the pandemic, his remit expanded as he worked to support people “by granting them a wish list of things they want to do,” offering telephone befriending, and serving people of many faiths. The experience has been “both an ordeal and a lifeline, a way of living to honor the dead.”
 
As restrictions on worship services change or are lifted in some communities, reports focus on how far community worship returns to pre-pandemic levels and practices. The Irish Times reports that in Ireland the Catholic Church is “beginning to see life after COVID.” Caution is the rule, for example with restraint on handshaking. This applies to funerals: “In one case, the coffin was placed directly in front of the pew where the family was seated, which meant that mourners wishing to sympathise nodded to the family as they passed rather than reaching across to shake hands.” Older people are reportedly hesitant to come to in-person services, but collections are up. Reports from the United States indicate that attendance is increasing slowly, with online worship still common.
 
The national Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, has an exhibition and has published a book on what the history of religion and science tells us about COVID-19.

New research papers we have identified focus on local community responses in El Salvador and in Sri Lanka on “desirable” religious leader roles during the pandemic: faith-setter, health promoter, be-friender, social worker, community mobilizer, networker, peacebuilder, and advocate. Others include an article focused on chaplaincy and COVID-19, “Human Flourishing in the Era of COVID-19: How Spirituality and the Faith Sector Help and Hinder Our Collective Response,” and a Sociology of Religion special issue on “Religion in the Age of Social Distancing.”