Like every other aspect of society, we in the religious community are grappling with the challenges of reopening. Yet while debates rage about complete, partial, or no return to the physical business office, communities of faith must not settle for anything less than the real thing. We must return to our houses of faith.
The pandemic introduced the faith community to virtual meetings, moving many of us to develop a new model of remote religious services that in many cases reached and engaged wider audiences no longer defined by geography. The positive is that this model expanded the reach of our services and ministries, both in numbers of attendees and hours of participation. The benefits and advantages of that expanded reach to so many who had not previously engaged, prayed, or studied at that level must be creatively maintained post-pandemic.