Worship in a post-lockdown context: A ritual-liturgical perspective

Abstract

In this unprecedented time, there are many questions and plenty of speculation surrounding what life will be like after the South African nationwide lockdown. There is concern over the effects that the lockdown will have on worship services when churches are in a position to open their doors to the public once more. As a result of recognising the lockdown as a liminal phase, perspectives are shared when considering how the church will gather again in a post-lockdown context and therefore a post-liminal phase. One prevailing perspective in considering this post-liminal phase involves koinonia and how an undiscriminating virus can remind those to further practise inclusivity and ubuntu, by embracing sameness and difference when ‘being church’. In contrast, another important perspective focuses on ritualising certain measures in the worship service to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), when gathering in church buildings is permissible in a post-lockdown context. This is concluded by echoing the spirit of ubuntu, namely, ‘I am because we are’, in ‘being church’ during and after the crisis of the COVID-19 global pandemic.Contribution: From the perspective of Liturgical and Ritual Studies, this article aims to contribute to the Theological perspectives of COVID-19.

The Ministry of Religious Congregations to People Affected by the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus in Poland: Geographies of Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…On March 24, 2020, the Minister of Health signed a regulation that limited the number of people participating in religious events to five, excluding those celebrating the liturgy (Rozporządzenie Ministra Zdrowia, 2020), which remained in force until April 20, 2021. Due to the closure of the churches and in response to the appeals made by the religious hierarchy, lay Christians stayed at home and participated in the liturgy and celebrations of the Good Week and Easter remotely: via television, radio and online communications channels (Scott, 2020;Ziółkowska-Weiss & Mróz, 2021). Religious congregations used a broad range of technological innovations and modern telecommunications technologies to sustain their relationships with the faithful by broadcasting church services, Lent retreats and other religious events (Przywara et al, 2021).…”

Essential Workers, Essential Services? Leitourgia in Light of Lockdown

“…Nonetheless, as many have argued, Christian liturgy has functioned throughout the ages-for better and for worse-as public acts of theological interpretation, which interact in the public square with those proposed by others. 13 Hilton Scott (2020b) argues that the pandemic has thrust assemblies into an unusual experience of liminality, in which their primary public theology is no longer able to function as it generally has. He sees this time, and I agree, as a creative, open space for assemblies to seek new forms of contextual koinonia and communitas, which, in light of the pandemic, received liturgical practices appear limited in their ability to propose.…”

“…The cumulative effect echoed liturgical lament, 19 though in this predominantly White North Side assembly, it also had the As Edward Foley notes, "Whether we agree with it or not, societies, cultures, and even countries are already promulgating their own public theologies" (Foley 2008, p. 41). Hilton Scott proposes in his South African context a renewed understanding of the concept of ubuntu ("I am because we are") in light of the indiscriminate nature of COVID-19 infection, "a new status quo that is fully human and therefore able to accept difference and otherness as well as navigate such relationships without discriminating" (Scott 2020b). Foley argues that dialogue is key to public theology proposed through liturgy, "not simply supplying answers to questions and problems posed by the world, but ritually responsive in the ways it symbolizes, celebrates, and consecrates God's brooding Spirit afoot in the liturgy of the world" (Foley 2008, p. 47).…”