Finding God in a Pandemic and Beyond:
Online and Ordinary Sacred Places

Attendance, Buildings & Spaces, Catholic Parishes, Culture Frame, Ritual & Worship, Technology & Internet, Theology Frame, Theology-Feature, United States & Canada

Where does one go to find God? Quite commonly, a place of worship. Even people who aren’t sure if God exists seek divine help in churches and mosques and cathedrals because such religious buildings are understood as sacred spaces. If God does exist, surely God will be found in these holy places. 

This understanding of sacred space poses a problem in a global pandemic, however. Where does one go to find God when those religious buildings are closed? And beyond the pandemic, it challenges communities of faith to think in new ways.

Networked Congregations:
Together and Apart

Catholic Parishes, Commitment & Belonging, Culture Frame, Networks & Relationships, Ritual & Worship, Theology Frame, Theology-Feature, United States & Canada

Worship is a central activity of congregations everywhere, but what has happened during these months when gathering hasn’t been possible? A survey conducted during the first two months of the outbreak in North America showed that pastors’ top priority was to find a way to continue their weekend worship services in the midst of the…

We Will Feast:
Studying New Ways of Congregating

Commitment & Belonging, Culture Frame, Interviews, Participant Observation, Ritual & Worship, Theology Frame, Theology-Feature, Thriving Congregations

I attended my first dinner-church service on a warm Thursday evening in the summer of 2015. As part of my coursework in Food Studies, I’d just completed a semester-long project on the formation of relationships over a meal – what anthropologists call “commensality.” The invitation to this service intrigued me. My own love of the…