This commentary is by Rev. Devon Thomas, who serves the churches in Jeffersonville, Hyde Park and Bakersfield.
This year I led my churches through the holidays in Covid quarantine, it was one of the most terrifying, inconvenient and spiritually challenging periods of my life!
Having now come out the other end of my quarantine, I find myself wishing I had received more direction in what to do.
December is a busy month for ministers, and at the start of the month my wife woke me up to inform me our daughter had tested positive for Covid with an at-home test. After we confirmed that she was sick and that her symptoms were mild, we bunkered down to do the responsible thing and locked ourselves in the house for the good of society.
My wife and I had hoped we would only have to wait out our daughter’s quarantine to get back to life. Long story short, Covid did not care.
At the start of our quarantine, my family started looking for directions — and this is why I am writing, not to say there is any lack of direction, but to share I feel there is a serious lack of coordination and leadership in how we are facing this current wave of Covid.
As far as the state of Vermont is concerned, as long as I and my wife tested negative, we had the choice to quarantine for five days or go out into the world, business as usual. That did not feel safe to us, or to my congregations, I might add.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended isolation for 10 days after close contact and then getting tested five days after that. This seemed the safer approach, and so when my daughter got sick, we started a timer, and when my wife tested positive a week later, we reset that timer for her.
My wife and I chose to listen to the CDC because we also were listening to religious directions. Organized religion is “supposed” to be about moral and civic responsibility — “Love thy neighbor” (Matthew:22) and such — and so, as we were deciding what to do, we shifted into “love thy neighbor” mode. At the start of the month, I felt I had a pretty good grasp on my family’s Covid problem. Again, Covid did not care.
What does being in Covid quarantine look like for a minister over the holidays? Well, for me it meant my holiday month was messed up. I had to do everything over zoom, even the Christmas Eve service. This I did from a laptop the congregation placed on top of the pulpit, making me look like a robot minister!
This holiday season became a month of dashed expectations and creative adjustments. And while my congregations were very supportive of me in this situation, I was always wrestling with my own expectations of what a minister “should” be doing over the holidays. It did not feel right for me to be stuck at home when normally I would be leading worship. Also, ministers have a bad habit of ignoring when they are sick and doing their job anyway, just so you church folk out there know to look for that!
Needless to say, by the time my quarantine period was over I was ready to get back to work. This first Sunday of the new year was supposed to be my first Sunday back behind the pulpit. My family had recovered, and I seemed to be healthy. I had been keeping my congregations in the loop with my health too. I had taken an at-home Covid test and it was negative, I was fever-free, and I had promised that I would be at church in person.
But that morning, I woke up with a sore throat and shortness of breath. Having seen my wife go through it, I knew those were Covid symptoms. I found myself in a gray zone and I did not know what to do.
This is where I lost direction. Having tested negative a day before with an at-home test, but still having symptoms, should I honor my promise to lead service in person, or should I stay home and stay safe?
For many reading this, the answer may seem obvious, and in reflection, it seems clear too, but I understand now more than ever how important directions can be when you are thrown through the wringer and don’t know what to do. In those moments, “obvious” is not clear, and the thing that saved me was communication.
That morning at 3, when I knew I was unwell, I sent an email out to my churches and hoped my congregants would get back to me. While I waited and hoped for a response, I got ready for church, hopped into my car and drove off to work.
By 7 a.m., I was at my first church and ready to go and it was then when a friend at the church gave me a call and gave me DIRECTION! She told me to “Stay home and stay safe!” And that is what I did. It was a long drive back home, but I cannot express the amount of relief I felt when my congregants started to get in touch with me and shared what they needed me to do.
What I needed through my quarantine were clear directions. This is not something I received from the CDC or the state, which are taking a get-through-it-yourself approach to this wave of Covid. I feel this is wrong. If I did not have religious and community direction in how to address my quarantine, I feel I would have shown up in person at church that Sunday.
I wound up testing negative for Covid. I had a common cold, but even so, I would have ignored the risk, thinking that I was doing the right thing by honoring my job commitment. I think about “essential workers” in hospitals, supermarkets and public schools, who suffer the same dilemmas with little or no guidance.
Getting through a pandemic is about coordination and communication. We need this from our government, not just the community. And I hope that the Scott administration and everyone in our state government will do more to increase the direction and communication we need to get through these topsy-turvy pandemic moments, and do the right thing for our neighbors here in Vermont.
