A plea to pastors, priests and religious leaders - Covid19

To my colleagues - ministers, pastors, priests, religious leaders - you are particularly vulnerable to COVID19. 

Your work places you in close contact with people. In particular, since you are in a caring profession, you are in contact with sick people, you lead religious services (such as funerals), where the chances of being infected are exponentially increased.

Photographs by James OatwayLet’s be honest with one another - many clergy are not that healthy, we can’t afford the best health care, and we seldom have the necessary resources to keep ourselves, our families, and our congregations safe and healthy.

Please, please, please be wise and be extra cautious. It is heartbreaking to see more and more colleagues, their families, their members, desperately sick, and dying day after day.

To members of religious communities - please take care of the people who care for you. If you are sick please don’t expose them to infection. If you have had contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID19, or someone who has died, please don’t attend funerals, prayer meetings, or memorial services. Please take care of clergy and their families.

Colleagues, I want to remind you that you are particularly vulnerable - more vulnerable than most. Please take care of yourselves. Please be wise. You are precious and your work is important. We need you to stay safe and stay healthy.

Compassion Fatigue during the Coronavirus pandemic

Considering CompassionRecently I have begun to worry that some of us are facing 'compassion fatigue'.

It is understandable, given the immensity of the suffering that so many face, and the constant barrage of information about illness, economics, tragedy, corruption and our inability to 'instantly solve' many of these important concerns.

As I listen to friends, observe reporting in the media, and gauge my own emotional state, I sense that many of us have become 'numb' to the hardship and tragedy that the coronavirus pandemic has brought. Some have chosen to withdraw - those of us who have privilege have the luxury to do so. Others have begun to believe falsehoods, some even spread them - history will not be kind us. Some simply cannot care anymore. That is not our truest nature, and we should never let ourselves fall into something that we are not meant to be.

Please let us always remember that ultimately this is about people. It is about precious people. It is also about sick people who long to be restored to health, it is about vulnerable people who are afraid that they may get sick and not have the resources to recover, it is about people who grieve the loss of loved ones, and long to find comfort and meaning in the midst of loss.

It is about us, and we are human. You matter. You bear the image of a God - a God who is loving and life giving. And so does every other person - even the one's we don't know, don't understand, or don't agree with.

A few years ago I wrote a chapter for a book that was entitled: 'Affect, Empathy, and Human Dignity? Considering Compassion at the Intersection of Theology and Science.' (simply click on the title to download a PDF copy)

(it comes from, 'Considering Compassion: Global Ethics, Human Dignity, and the Compassionate God' edited by L.J. Claassens & Frits de Lange (eds.). Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications. pp. 3–16.

Maybe it can offer some encouragement, or perhaps an insight into this phenomenon called 'compassion fatigue'.

Please, let's not give up caring.