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Deacon Francis Capitanio, the Communications Director for the American Anglican Council, shares some important insights:

“Clergy, and in fact Christians everywhere, have been given a not-so-subtle message through this pandemic regarding the place of faith in American national life, at least as expressed through some of our political leaders and government policies. The Church is “non-essential” and has no place of leadership in the nation. Leaders of both parties have made many statements to that effect, teaching Christians that their services are unimportant, that public prayer, the sacraments, and public worship have nothing to do with our restoration or the ending of a crisis in our nation. Rather than being encouraged to provide public statements that give counsel, truth, or ethical evaluations, religious leaders have been encouraged to be silent and shutter their doors. Our national dialogue glorifies the voices of scientists and doctors but not the Christian men and women in the front lines, ministers and priests behind the scenes and fighting against the poverty, depression, and despair that COVID19 has brought upon many.

In some states, such as California, the lock down has been more extreme, with clergy forbidden from visiting the sick as they die of this virus in hospitals because they are deemed non-essential. COVID19 patients are dying alone. No one is praying with them, administering last rites, keeping them hopeful with their eyes on Heaven. This spiritual help with spiritual realities in the midst of suffering and death is deemed unnecessary.

The recent comments by New York Governor Cuomo illustrates this unfortunate mindset and the growing secularization of those who are defining the national narrative. While giving an update on the virus and its steady decline, without any prompting, Governor Cuomo stated emphatically: “God did not do this. Faith did not do this. We did this.” Can he really be so sure? Does he know the spiritual world and have access to the other dimension and all its workings? Can he really believe with such certainty that God had nothing to do with the lives saved, the doctors and nurses who risked their lives, the love shown between strangers? What a false and horrendous dichotomy that is, completely devoid of any real hope outside of a temporary return to life-as-usual.

As the Church, we must reject and stand firm against this grotesque secularism. We must not collaborate with our own trivialization. We must reject the label of “non-essential” placed on us. We must continue to embrace our call to be a light in the darkness, a city on a hill, a garden in winter. This is the time to not give up what many of us have engaged in over the past couple months: serving, praying, thinking innovatively and witnessing to the glory of Christ wherever and however we can, rather than the glory of man. Many churches have shown just how essential they are, but our perseverance must not lessen simply because the pandemic seems to be abating. It’s precisely in moments like this that we are needed most, and as restrictions ease and less people get sick and die, we mustn’t then say with the world, “Ah, we have arrived! Our summer is here.” We have not arrived. We are only passing through temporary respite before the next trial, the next earthly winter. We will keep on passing through, until the Summer to which all other summers point appears, and He who loves us is manifested to the world and brings the final thaw.”