The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reshaped faith communities throughout Chattanooga and the Southeast, bringing new challenges to rituals and forcing congregations to find new ways of creating community.
Rabbi Keliah Lebell, who recently moved to Southeast Tennessee from California, took part in a discussion on the topic, alongside the Rev. Brad Whitaker, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Doug Jacobs, president of the Chattanooga Association for Clinical Pastoral Care and moderator of the conversation.
The Monday discussion, held virtually, was part of the annual “Book of Life” discussion series on faith and health care hosted by a partnership of local care providers.
The faith leaders said there was a lot of fear and anxiety among their congregations, especially in the early months of the pandemic when so much was unknown about how the virus spread and what could be done to lower risks.
Lebell said many people she knew felt a sense of guilt in expressing the hardships they faced if those struggles were not directly linked to the pandemic. In the more than 18 months since the pandemic began, people struggled with diseases like cancer or struggled with their mental health, but felt they could not say anything because the virus was hurting people in such profound ways.