Over the span of a lifetime in the church I have seen the devastating effects of splits within congregations. An emotional issue can divide a congregation. The results are almost always bad for institutional health. I’ve know pastors who encouraged conflict to come to the surface and sometimes the results were that the pastor and the congregation ended up going separate ways. Often the congregation lost a lot of valuable members in the process and ended up weaker and less able to do its work. During my years, I worked hard to avoid splitting congregations. When conflict arose, and it did, I worked at keeping the disagreeing parties engaged in the work of the church. I sought to find common ground in the midst of disagreement. I reminded members that what brings us together is far more important than what divides us. I worked especially hard at keeping people with whom I disagreed engaged in the congregation. I wasn’t always successful. There were, over the years, members who left the church because of decisions I made or my leadership style or other reasons. But there were also major disagreements in which we retained all of the affected parties.

Despite those efforts, however, the final months of my employment in South Dakota found me serving a congregation that was split in an entirely new way. When the pandemic hit we had members who had been regular worshipers who isolated at home. Suddenly they did not come to church any more. With less than a week’s notice we began live-streaming worship. I also live-streamed daily prayer. I learned about microphones and cameras and high speed Internet and a host of other technical things that I had largely ignored prior to the pandemic.

At the same time, I sought to keep the church doors open. Keeping with the advice of experts and of the church board, we encouraged people to stay at home and to participate online. However, even though we didn’t advertise or promote it, we allowed those who physically came to the church to enter the building. We developed a routine of sanitizing surfaces. We blocked off pews to keep people socially isolated. we encouraged the wearing of masks. And we continued to worship.

Suddenly, I had two congregations: one of people worshiping from a distance, another of the few who kept coming to the church. I addressed both at once when leading worship, but, as Marshall McLuhan wrote, “the media is the message.” Watching a livestream is not the same as being physically present in the church. Furthermore, there was a “third” congregation of which I was increasingly aware. Early on in the pandemic we used a team of volunteers to make contact with every member of the congregation. Most of those contacts were by telephone, a few by email and other media. We discovered that there were people isolated at home who did not have access to high speed internet in order to view the livestreams. We started a weekly newsletter aimed at those individuals. I wrote out the daily prayers and they were mailed to those without access to the Internet. We partnered with an Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in our community that broadcast worship over the radio to provide worship for our members who had access to the radio.

Now, more than a year later, I am working in a new congregation and at our first meeting with the Faith Formation Board last night it became evident that the congregation’s hybrid worship and meeting style, with some members coming in person and others participating over the internet, presents real challenges. Having lived our careers in the church, it was not surprise that the August meeting of the Board was focused on a “Welcome Home” Sunday. We often called the event “Rally Sunday” in previous congregations. A Sunday in early September is chosen as the kickoff of fall programming. Special events and activities are planned to invite people to participate. This congregation is no different. It is a tradition. The date has been set. However, the dynamics of a dangerous uptick in infection rates with variants of the virus and the fact that there is not yet a vaccine for children, means that our congregation includes children who cannot attend in person. Even though we are planning an outdoors event where people will be distanced and gathered in family groups - being physically close only to those in their “bubble,” we know that there are families who will choose not to participate. There will be part of the event that we don’t have the technology to livestream. Although we will make a video and work on ways to engage those who watch at home, the experiences of coming to the event in the church yard and participating from home will be very different.

Businesses are already seeing divisions within the workforce. While some employees are able to work from home at least part of the time, there are many job functions that require physical presence. The entire service sector is based on physical presence. Many manufacturing jobs require being present in the place where special equipment is located. This has created a wide division between classes of workers, exaggerating the old white/blue collar divisions between working people.

For generations, church leaders have used various versions of a quote, often erroneously attributed to Augustine: “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity,” or “unity in necessary things, liberty in doubtful things, charity in all things.” It is a kind of “get out of debate” free card for theological differences. And I have sought to seek and promote unity throughout my career. A single quote, however, is insufficient to bridge the divisions within the institutional church caused by the pandemic. While we continue to believe that the divine transcends all division, we are called to continue to work for unity within the church. That doesn’t mean that we all have the same experience or that we are all the same. It does, however, demand that we invest the best of our creative thought and practice in discovering new ways to build community while continuing to respect difference, and practice safety for all.

As was true throughout my other years of working, this new job will be a challenge. I won’t be bored. There is much work to be done.