This commentary is by Rev. Debbie Ingram, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, based in Burlington.
Every clergy person spends much of their career conducting funerals and memorial services. Death, along with birth and marriage, is one of the important life stages that brings people to a recognition of being part of something bigger than themselves and draws them to seek out the support of those around them.
Covid-19 has caused many of us to lose our routines, our peace of mind, our livelihoods, our schooling — and all of that has been hard enough. Yet we all surely know that for those who have actually lost the lives of their loved ones to this serious illness, it has been much worse. And most of us have the deep respect for human life that leads us to feel keenly the loss even of those we do not know personally.
There is a collective loss when all of us have gone through a catastrophic occurrence together and some of us have not survived it. Our communities, our state, have suffered, and if we are to heal from that suffering, we must first acknowledge it.
The members of many different faith traditions involved in Vermont Interfaith Action want to offer a first step in that healing process through a public Covid Memorial Service on Sunday, Sept. 19, at 3 p.m. on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier.
By reading the names of the 279 Vermonters who have been lost, and sharing in brief prayers and scripture readings from various faith traditions, we seek to pay our respects to the lives that have been prematurely taken from us and to share the sadness we all feel.
We also want to show our respect for the tenacity of the virus by asking those who attend, even though the event is outdoors, to mask and social distance.
Historically, human beings have found that when we do not know exactly what to say to one another and when we are trying to manage a host of difficult feelings, ritual performed in community provides meaning and solace.
The nature of the pandemic has made it impossible for many families and friends of those Vermonters who have died from Covid to come together for individual memorial services, lest they spread the virus even more. This service, to which all are welcome, will hopefully provide an opportunity for mourning that some have been denied.
And it will also demonstrate to everyone in our state that we have some inkling of what the pain Covid has brought on our neighbor is like, and we care.
