Faith and Democracy in a COVID era

Kristen Cambell
Office of Citizen
Published in
3 min readJun 25, 2020

--

Recently, PACE announced the re-launch of our Faith In/And Democracy initiative, an effort that works to bring people together at the intersection of faith and civic life. This work, as is true for a lot of work in the bridge-building and civic engagement space, is predicated on the ability to build and nurture relationships. It is often conducted through in-person dialogue, shared meals, community events, and service projects.

This initiative was launched in 2019 as a pilot effort, and upon re-opening this month, PACE articulated a three-year commitment to this work. As we shift from pilot to program, we do so in the midst of a global pandemic, which is devastating to lives and livelihoods, and disproportionately so in communities of color. The world is certainly a different place than it was in 2019, and understandably, we’ve gotten several questions about how our work and approach is adapting amidst COVID-19 and the need for physical distancing measures to ensure community health and safety.

PACE convened our pilot year grantees in early June to raise this question. We heard from grantees that the necessity of physical distancing is actually increasing their communities’ interest in finding new and re-inspired ways to connect — both to their neighbors and to their faith. One grantee expressed that “our work is giving people light” in a time of great uncertainty. Several expressed that online engagement helped them reach people they wouldn’t be able to engage otherwise — some by an order of magnitude. Another said it was creating opportunities for digital mentorship to take place, and helping them engage in deep listening and invest in the relationship infrastructure that will continue to advance their mission even after distancing restrictions are lifted.

Simultaneously to the global pandemic, our grantees are also responding, and helping their communities respond, to acts of racial injustice and find ways to address systemic racism as a reflection of a commitment to their faith.

We engaged Michael Wear as an analyst and storyteller to help us glean learnings, lessons, and stories about ways our community is engaging at the intersection of faith in civic life. He recently caught up with Shoshanna Spector from Faith in Indiana to hear more about how (among many other things!) the pandemic is influencing their work and how stories of faith traditions can help people overcome adversity: “We have the strength, creativity, and resilience to face this,” she says. And she challenges us to consider “how, in this COVID moment, [are we] re-creating our communal lives in a virtual sphere?”

This is one of what we hope will become a series of podcasts with different leaders across different perspectives and traditions over the course of the coming months.

So while we acknowledge the turbulent context that this work sits in right now, we push the work forward, because we believe it is important, critical to our civic health, and the right work to do. We do so by reaffirming our commitment to equity, both in the spirit and the practice of our program. Because as Shoshanna expresses in her conversation with Michael: “if we are only asking people to do individual acts of kindness, and not asking them to do collective acts of justice, we are not living out our faith.”

We want to resource organizations and learn from leaders that are advancing “positions that matter to my soul” (as one grantee articulated it recently) in a respectful, thoughtful, honoring way during this very important time for democracy and humanity. If that’s you or someone you know, consider joining us on this journey; we’re inviting applications until July 7.

--

--