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Lay folks? Check on your clergy (whatever your tradition). Push your orgs to care for them in concrete ways. It is becoming more and more clear to me that MOST of us aren't OK. And I'm afraid in the next year there's going to be a mass exodus of exhausted, burnt out clergy.
What are concrete ways to care for your clergy (other clergy feel free to add onto this): 1. End the discussion of how we will worship. Encourage your community to make a decision to stay online UNTIL COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION ENDS. Full stop.
Volunteer to lead worship/study/preach (yes you can), add MORE supply (preaching/presiding) to the budget. Find lay volunteers to lead educational stuff. Don't know how to lead online? Guess what, your clergy don't either. We're all making it up as we go along.
Encourage your community to practice doing *less.* Encourage your fellow lay people to practice at home, without needing your clergy to lead (you can do daily prayers without the clergy leading, you can).
Check on each other. Seriously, pastoral care is something everyone can do. Call each other, write letters, do some of the heavy lifting of alleviating loneliness, your clergy CANNOT do it all. The need has expanded exponentially and their time hasn't.
Say thank you. Find SOMETHING this week to thank them for. You'd be amazed how far this goes. Most clergy are making things up as they go along and are probably feeling like they are failing to live up to their normal high standards.
