Reflections on Pandemic Church by Judy Thompson

Judy Thompson | September 21, 2021

The New Wineskins Sunday School class began a weekly Zoom class on Sunday, September 6, 2020.  We met at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday thereafter.  Thanks to the enterprise and hard work of Pat Payne we were able to stay connected each week.

Bill Walton led us through the lessons in the Formations adult Bible study. Through weekly lessons and scriptures we were challenged and strengthened in our faith.  At the end of our lesson and discussion, we would have time for a "social hour" before the online church service at 11:00 a.m.

Both zooming and the church service were beneficial to our class in staying connected during the pandemic. To add a bit of fun to our "social hour", it was suggested to have everyone prepare three things that happened in our past but have one thing to be untrue.  The next time we met, we took turns presenting our three life events and guessing which one was untrue!  It took several Sundays to do this activity.  Another activity was at Halloween.  We appeared on Zoom in costume and talked about Halloween as a child.

After everyone had the first vaccine shot, Bob Fehr had a movie night at his home.  Of course, we had a meal!  Bob provided a twelve-foot-long sub sandwich which we cut and shared.  Others brought side dishes to complete the feast.  We even watched Super Bowl 2021 at Bob's house!  Fun times to be sure!

We lost many members of our church during this time.  Our group was saddened deeply in the loss of our dear friend Ron Schmidt.  Ron made us laugh with his humorous approach to life and his witty expressions.  Not only was he a well-loved educator, he delighted in his precious grandchildren.  It was a joy to hear his fun tales of their visits.

The pandemic provided an abundance of time to know each other a little better than before our separation.  We are grateful to have had one another during this period of uncertainty.

This reflection is part of our church archives project to preserve records of our life together during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though we still find ourselves in the midst of this exceptional time, we hope these reflections will serve not only as accounts of where we’ve been, but as reminders that we are not alone, and encouragement that we journey forward together. We’d love to hear your reflections too!  While the project will continue, we’d like submissions for the first phase by October 15.  We will only publish reflections to our blog with the authors' consent. To submit or find out more, contact Pat Ingram (patingram609@aol.com).