As a public service for Insight readers, we present this poster of safer activities during the coronavirus pandemic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Feel free to download and print this poster for your congregation. Thanks to the Iowa Annual Conference for alerting us to the resource.
Choosing Safer Activities
Just yesterday (see Crisis Watch July 22) we noted that the rise of COVID-19 cases in undervaccinated communities threatens churches' return to more in-person gatherings in the United States. Today (July 23), the CDC has announced that its predictive model indicates a steep surge in COVID-19 infections because of the highly contagious Delta variant. Public health experts working with the CDC say the new surge is likely to peak in October, resulting in more than 4,000 deaths per day if current rates of vaccinations don't improve.
This predictive model, reported by NPR, dismays public officials and church leaders alike. Those in charge of the CDC's COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of researchers working in consultation with the CDC stress that now is not the time to forego the protocols that have helped keep coronavirus at bay – masking, physical distancing and sanitizing. Whether a new round of lockdowns looms in the future will depend on state and local government's response to any COVID-19 surges in their areas.
Churches are advised to keep tabs on local public health reports to determine whether or how much to re-open in-person gatherings over the next several months.
Support for same-sex marriage continues to increase
While not rising to the level of the climate emergency or the coronavirus pandemic, the struggle over LGBTQ inclusion in The United Methodist Church certainly qualifies as a crisis to be watched by United Methodists.
Public Religion Research Institute recently gave statistical validation for removing the UMC's ban on same-sex marriage with a survey showing that it 67 percent of Americans now favor same-sex marriage. In addition, PRRI found that opposition to same-sex marriage declined since 2007 from 55 percent to 27 percent.
While these figures encourage those who favor full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the UMC, they may also stir more congregations and individuals to affiliate with the proposed Global Methodist Church, should a formal UMC split come about within the next 12 to 15 months. The Wesleyan Covenant Association is proceeding full steam ahead with its development of the GMC and with advocating for passage of the Protocol for Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation.
No official preparation for a split is taking place among mainstream United Methodists, although some progressives are trying to decide whether to stay in the UMC on the promise that LGBTQ bans will be removed after a break-up.
Some congregations aren't waiting to see if the twice-delayed General Conference, now set to start Aug. 19, 2022, actually will approve splitting the denomination. A recent article by Megan Fowler in Christianity Today found both progressive and traditionalists congregation petitioned to disaffiliate with the UMC in 51 of the 54 U.S. annual conferences this year.
In the words of our colleague and frequent Insight contributor Dan Gangler, stay tuned.
Media Mentions as of July 23, 2021
United Methodist Church congregations leave, protest against LGBTQ inclusion – ChicagoPride.com
We are fiddling while the world burns, floods and chokes – by Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.
Vanderbilt's James Lawson institute honors rights activist – Religion News Service