Connected While Apart
What About Super-spreader?
more random letters than words
Dear Mayfield,
For the first time ever, the folks who put out the Oxford English Dictionary have not chosen a word for the year. There is a spiritual practice that I’ve participated in from time to time. It involves being still and trying to discern what word would guide you in the year to come. That is not what the Oxford Dictionary folks are about. It has been their habit each year to name the word in the past year that they sense has had the greatest impact on the English-speaking world. This year the pandemic and all of the other crises connected to it have spawned so many such words that it was impossible for them to identify just one. And so in 2020 there is no word for the year lifted up by the Oxford English Dictionary.
In the absence of an Oxford Dictionary selection, I am going to name a word that I suspect was a contender and look at it through the prism of Mayfield Church. What about super-spreader? It is a word with heavy usage on the news and in public health spaces right now. There is widespread anticipation of the super-spreader effect of last week’s in-home,Thanksgiving gatherings following similar effects in the wake of other holidays — Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. In this case, superspreading is clearly a dangerous negative. Let’s turn the word on its head and view its potential from a more positive direction. Superspreading is about irrefutable connection. It involves what is passed from one person to the next or one group of people to the next. It is not uncommon for churches and other faith communities to be committed to life-giving connections and the passage of what is good and helpful, welcoming, caring, and respectful, across boundaries within the human species and across boundaries among varied species. We have long tried to grow into lives together of that sort of super-spreading broadly and widely.
Faith communities have felt the impact of Covid-19 profoundly and have responded variously in their commitment to a fundamental love of neighbor ethic, a love that offers structure to what and how we would super-spread in the world . Some faith communities have been the point of origin for a superspreading of the virus. Some have not. Pausing specifically with Mayfield, I am going to highlight a variety of actions taken over these long months to continue to super-spread what is most important to us and among us.
- Beginning on March 15, I have communicated with all of you three times a week, by email and Google Doc, to offer common content and reflection, as a way of keeping us together. An email-based approach has allowed accessibility for everyone.
- From late March into mid-summer, a group of six — Peggy, Diana, Teresa, Jan, Sue G, and Craig called, texted, emailed, or wrote members and friends of the congregation on a regular basis. The congregation was divided up into six groups that rotated among them, and you heard from them in various ways over those months.
- The summer brought safe opportunities to connect in the Monarch Waystation and under Diana’s direction to attend to the ongoing maintenance tasks the garden requires. There was an informal system of communication via chalk talks on the driveway that was sometimes included in webnotes. Those who came out to the Waystation were also treated to the remarkable progress of the Gravel Garden at the end of the parking area. Thank you Wilma and Marlo for that beauty we beheld. And finally, Peggy hosted three nature talks via Zoom to boost our knowledge and our sense of place in the larger created world. One more note on the summer — Rob and Sue G, along with a friend Diane, created 400 masks for students, staff, and teachers at JAMS, along with repair materials, fabric, elastic, and directions for students to learn to make further masks. Their sewing strengthened the historic spread of support and concern from Mayfield to Kenya for the transformative education of girls there.
- Come fall, members of the Church Council under Dawn’s leadership, have delivered monthly surprises in person or by mail, when possible. Gifts have come from their hands and hearts to everyone else. After a physically-distanced visit to a local pumpkin patch, they picked and labeled all the pumpkins we received. Meanwhile Joann H and Becky were stitching up the Prayer Squares Council Members brought to us in November. In fact, the picture above is the fabric on the back side of the prayer square that came to me. Be on the lookout for their December surprise due to arrive in coming days.
- And finally, Teresa is organizing a Winter Buddy system to help get us through the cold weeks setting in. Her goal is to match people of all ages, one-on-one, by December 21, the first day of winter. Email her at bntscott1@frontier.com or text her at 815.733.0751 if you would like to have a winter buddy, a penpal, a specific person in the congregation to keep in touch with through the winter months. She is all set to include everyone who is interested in being part of this network
There is a longing to be together again, to fully inhabit lives that super-spread the story and the values of the gospel. In between now and then, we will continue to safely try various approaches to nourish our connections, to pass from one to another what feeds our faith and keeps us ready to respond justly and with love, outward from the core of who we are and who we are becoming. Stay safe and well.
Peace, Martha
Notes for Worship and Reflection This Weekend
- This is a communion Sunday. Have your elements ready.
- Are your Advent candles in place? On this second Sunday in Advent you will have the opportunity to light two candles or candle clusters as the illumination of the season grows around you
For the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sundays in Advent, our worship and reflection time will begin with three carols. Jen invites you to sing along then and any other time in these weeks when you want to enjoy these carols