By: Greta Roberson, Nicholas R. Sherwood, and Oakley T. Hill
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat, Oman. Nicholas R. Sherwood (author’s personal collection).
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and communities around the world have turned to their religious or spiritual leaders for guidance and support. For many of these leaders, however, serving the unprecedented needs of their congregation members and their families can be highly stressful. To better understand the role religious leaders play in the lives of congregation members, the Al Amana Centre, based in Muscat, Oman, contracted MHCR to interview religious leaders about their experiences during the pandemic.
The purpose of this news story is to communicate our findings from the research project we have been conducting since the summer of 2020. Initial data was gathered from academic articles, advocacy groups, and news articles – each suggesting religious leaders have faced challenges but also found clever ways to overcome these challenges. Before this study, no publications have asked religious leaders themselves about their experiences serving congregation members during COVID (except for some survey-based data; Nurhayati & Purnama, 2021; Osei-Tutu et al., 2021; Weiden et al., 2021). MHCR’s study sought to illuminate and articulate the challenges, sources of resilience, and unmet needs of religious leaders, their families, their congregations, and their communities during COVID.
What Did We Know Before the Study?
In many countries, such as Nigeria, religious leaders’ input can be seen as more important than other community leaders' or governmental officials’ input (Brady, 2019). In some instances, the mismatch between a religious leader’s advice about coping with the challenges of COVID and governmental policies regarding slowing or stopping the spread of the virus has led to controversy over ways to best mitigate the pandemic while also respecting a particular religious tradition (Muhumuza, 2020). Additionally, in the United States and around the world, societal and governmental responses to the virus were politicized, resulting in social division within and between many congregations (Ansberry, 2021). The mix of politics, religion, and the realities of COVID’s ‘new normal’ created stress for many religious leaders, their families, their congregations, and their communities. Here are some notable examples of COVID-related conflict within religious communities or congregations:
· Nigeria frequently appeared in stories enflaming government and religious leaders who claimed prayer and herbal remedies could cure COVID (Amanambu, 2020).
· South Korea also drew attention to public controversy within conservative Christian churches for often disregarding government mandates like closures and social distancing (Lee & Oh, 2021).
· Some ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel incurred threats and discrimination due to perceived ignorance toward media figures and government mandates despite facing more hardships during the pandemic (Weiden et al., 2021).
· Ghanaian religious leaders were expected to offer more services to their communities who experienced financial challenges and social division (Osei-Tutu, et el., 2021; Baulk & McKay, 2022).
· Religious denominations also had conflicting advice within their leadership about COVID and health promotion. For instance, various Catholic ministries offered differing advice for vaccination exemptions (Crary & Smith, 2022).
However, religious leaders and their communities overcame COVID-related challenges in several innovative ways. First, many religious leaders modified their religious practices to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus. These included moving secular spaces to temporary new locations in parking lots, balconies, courtyards, and online (Bryson et al., 2020). Larger religious organizations, such as the Islamic Relief Worldwide, in partnership with the British Board of Scholars and Imams, made new guidelines for and offered necessary religious justifications for mosque closures, self-isolation, and alteration of burial practices such as using the body bag as a shroud (or kafan; Islamic Relief Worldwide, 2020). Interfaith and organizational collaboration eased some hardships; for instance, in Dubai, religious leaders worked alongside the government to allow money from Zakat funds (a pillar in Islam in which money is donated to the disadvantaged) to pay for meals and foodstuff to those affected by COVID-19 (Muhamed, 2021). In Indonesia, religious leaders, government officials, and scholars consulted another and found that public education was vital in implementing new protocols around burial practices (Nurhayati & Purnama, 2021).
What Did We Do?
After securing ethics approval from George Mason, between November 2020 and July 2022, MHCR staff conducted eleven (11) interviews with religious leaders from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Finland, Pakistan, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our participants included 2 women and 9 men; 91% percent of participants were above the age of 40. Furthermore, 64% of participants belonged to Christian, 27% to Islamic, and 9% to Judaic faith traditions. These individuals may be congregation leaders (e.g., priests, rabbis, imams), small group leaders, or administrators serving a central role in the functioning of their congregation. As part of the recruitment process, these individuals must have served as a ‘religious leader’ during the height of the pandemic (March 2020 – December 2021), though several interviews occurred after that period. By conducting interviews during the height of the pandemic and in the months afterward, we were able to understand some of the prolonged effects. For instance, during the last interviews, we could ask if things have improved, worsened, or stayed the same since the onset of the pandemic.
We divided interview questions into four main sections: (1) demographic information, (2) challenges brought by COVID, (3) a needs assessment, and (4) sources of resilience. Each section addresses the religious leader, their family, the congregation they oversee, and the local community of participants.
What We Learned from Our Interviews
Challenges of COVID
Several religious leaders noted the pandemic was not merely a challenge; it was a challenge multiplier. The biological threat of COVID-19 disrupted everyday life and required adaptation across many domains. But some of these adaptations caused unforeseen problems. For example, moving from in-person to online services made religious leaders more accessible to their congregations and communities, thereby increasing demands on religious leaders’ time. Furthermore, while Europe and the United States could afford to shut down for long periods of time, countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan could not. Some challenges differed in each country, and others were quite common. For example, some religious leaders cited challenges in convincing their congregants to take the pandemic seriously, while others struggled to relieve their congregants of unnecessary fears. Finally, all religious leaders noted financial difficulties, such as the livelihood of their congregants and funds designed to support their place of worship.
Sources of Resilience
Religious leaders demonstrated significant sources and practices of psychological resilience in their interviews. For example, several positively framed the pandemic as a time of reflection and connection with God and nature, as creating a handful of good problems, and several noted the excitement of a new challenge. For these resilient leaders, the pandemic was not all bad; it was an opportunity to grow and serve.
Religious leaders cited several sources of resilience that had not yet been explored in the academic literature. First, they found sources of strength in concepts that made hope realizable, for example, the concept of impermanence and the knowledge that even pandemics come to an end; accepting that there are powers larger than self and trusting those powers; having faith one belongs to their God or that one is part of a great whole. Second, religious leaders found sources of strength in particular practices, such as serving others (which seemed to be the most prominent source of strength in our interviews). Other practices included spending time on meaningful projects like book writing, spending time in nature, simplifying life, and literary experiences—escaping one’s circumstances through books, scripture, films, prayers, and meditation. Third, it was common across interviews for religious leaders to cite connection to others (and to oneself) as a source of strength. As one leader from Pakistan noted, “it is by being connected with others that we find our hope.”
Unmet Needs
During our interviews, we identified several unmet needs which were not addressed by religious leaders’ sources of resilience. First, for many religious organizations, income has decreased while expenses have risen. Ceasing in-person gatherings decreased the number and rate of tithes and donations. Even before the pandemic, most religious groups depended on the donations of their congregants. During COVID-19, religious organizations had to purchase masks, sanitizing products, and other personal protection equipment (PPE), leading to increased financial pressure. This was further exacerbated by congregants who lost jobs and needed community support. Second, religious leaders and congregants lost loved ones to the virus, and some experienced a ‘double loss’: they lost a loved one, and they were also barred from important religious rituals and burial traditions. To outsiders, such rituals may seem insignificant; but to believers, they are pivotal to mourning death and coping with loss. To be barred from these rituals was to have no access to one’s usual coping mechanisms. Third, a few religious leaders noted the need to make deeper meaning of the pandemic—i.e., as something that teaches us who we are, rather than a mere biological phenomenon. Fourth, several religious leaders also noted that switching to online practice made them more accessible, and thereby significantly increased their workload. Fifth, some leaders have noted the need to adapt rituals to online settings.
Next Steps
Though the pandemic has slowed for many, it is worthwhile to mention many communities and families are still encountering stressors related to the pandemic, as they are in a place of recovery from instabilities stemming from the pandemic. There is more work to be done to support religious leaders, and much of the research has been within the Christian, Islamic, and Judaic groups with little contextual knowledge of non-dominant religions such as Buddhist, Sikh, or Zoroastrian leaders as well as countries with a homogenous religious background . Several countries mentioned in the preliminary research had major divisions between religious groups and contain various pre-existing conflicts. It is worth noting that religion plays different roles in states and smaller communities. Nonetheless, the finished report will demonstrate some ways to mitigate and adapt to similar events in the future. It will further add to the recognizable frustrations that many individuals, families, and communities faced throughout the pandemic.
The study is entering the final stages, and a final report will be available by the end of this year. From this study, MHCR will produce a report for the Al Amana Center and a policy paper in hopes of informing religious leaders and policymakers about the challenges, needs, and sources of resilience within religious leaders during COVID. We hope this knowledge will inform how religions and government can work together to combat COVID and future public health emergencies and how to better care for religious leaders who support their families, congregations, and communities during these challenging times.
References
Amanambu, U. E. (2020). Critical reflections on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Nigerian religiosity. Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development, 3(4), 39-61. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.15977.31841
Ansberry, C. (2021, July 22). The Religious Leaders on the Front Lines of Mental Health. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/religion-mental-health-pandemic-11626884567
Baulk, D. & McKay, M. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 on social cohesion dynamics in conflict-affect communities: Based on a three-country study of the Philipines, Ghana, and Guatemala [Policy brief]. Center for Operational Analysis and Research. https://www.crs.org/get-involved/advocate-poor/public-policy/impact-covid-19-social-cohesion-dynamics-conflict-affected
Brady, A. (2019, July 15). Working with religious leaders for peaceful and cohesive societies. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. https://institute.global/policy/working-religious-leaders-peaceful-and-cohesive-societies
Bryson, J. R., Andres, L. & Davies, A. (2020). COVID‐19, virtual church services and a new temporary geography of home. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 111(3), 360–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12436
Crary, D., & Smith, P. (2022, February 12). Many faith leaders wary of religious exemptions for vaccine. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pope-francis-coronavirus-pandemic-health-religion-86394114e3120aa1dbb80921f1c2bf28