Grief and Gratitude During the COVID-19 Crisis
By Rev. Ann Champion Shaw, 5th Episcopal District
On Sunday, March 8, 2020, Bethel AME Church in San Francisco, celebrated its 168th Church Anniversary. The day couldn’t be more beautiful with a powerful worship service including a soul-stirring sermon by one of its former pastors, Dr. J. Edgar Boyd of First AME Church in Los Angeles. Afterward, the church dined sufficiently as love, peace, and harmony permeated throughout the atmosphere.
A week later, March 16, 2020, Mayor London Breed of San Francisco declared a Shelter-In-Place for all San Franciscans due to the COVID-19 crisis. As she spoke, her emotion was raw as she informed citizens to hunker down and only travel for essential purposes including visits to grocery stores and banks.
Parents, like myself, soon transformed living rooms into home schools while those persons who could no longer physically attend work sites turned their dining room tables into work stations with laptops. Zoom conferences, Facebook Live, and conference calls have become the constant mode of daily communication impacting our lives and all of our churches who scramble into a technological world that for some were unfamiliar territory.
My heart aches with missing the camaraderie that was a reliable fixture on Sunday mornings with our congregants, some of whom travel an hour each way from their homes to come into the heart of San Francisco. For me, Sunday mornings were not only a place of good worship with songs and sermons but also fun-filled conversations, smiles, and warm gestures. This sacred time was precious primarily because of the lack of African American presence that I encountered in my daily routine due to the demographic makeup where African Americans only comprise three percent of the San Francisco population.
During this pandemic in our nation and world, I long to physically be with my church on Sunday mornings again. However, I do understand the seriousness of the Coronavirus where scientists and data predict that 100,000-200,000 persons will die in our country which is why social distancing and Shelter-in-Place is necessary even for our churches. These actions will save lives.
Mayor London Breed knew this as she was the first mayor in the United States to declare Shelter-In-Place, which went against the non-sensical chatter from the White House, who initially did not take the Coronavirus seriously. Due to her brave leadership in implementing Shelter-In-Place early, the numbers of infections and deaths have not been as high for San Francisco and the Bay areas as the data predicted. For this, I am grateful. In following her leadership while protecting and serving our city, Bethel has done its part with extending services to the homeless which includes a 24-hour women’s shelter and food pantry with its cautionary measures limiting person-to-person contact.
There is no doubt that there is nothing like Sunday morning “hallelujahs” with church family; but, I’d rather do what is necessary so that one day we can see each other alive, healthy, and safe. There are so many things about this deadly virus that are unknown including the length of time and its impact. However, the knowledge that things could have been worse for San Franciscans offers some sense of relief and gratitude.
In the meantime, our prayers continue for those church members, family members, and friends who have or will be affected by COVID-19. We pray for our first responders and healthcare workers who are on the frontlines everyday trying to save lives as the church continues to declare Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
This year, during Bethel’s Church Anniversary, the Rev. Robert R. Shaw, II, the senior pastor, led the congregation in a song medley including, “Always and Forever” by Heatwave and “Reunited” by Peaches and Herb. It is indeed, our hope, that Bethel and the Connectional Church—which has been in existence for 233 years and has endured social ills, wars, and other global plagues of this kind—will once again emerge and its local churches will physically reunite with its pastors. When this Coronavirus passes, which one day it will, all of our churches will sing this popular love song for truly being reunited will “feel so good.”
The Rev. Ann Champion Shaw is the assistant pastor of Bethel AME Church in San Francisco, California.
