How is the coronavirus impacting life, mission and ministry? How are Seventh-day Adventist members, pastors and leaders in the Columbia Union Conference coping with the disruption and uncertainty? Watch episodes of Visitor News Live to see more.
Columbia Union News
5 Ways Columbia Union Members are Creating Community
The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have overtaken every facet of life. Five Columbia Union churches are attempting to ease the heavy load and stress we’ve been carrying by virtually meeting the needs of their community.
1. Chesapeake Conference’s Highland View church in Hagerstown, Md., is delivering communion items to members’ homes Friday to virtually take part in their livestreamed communion service on Sabbath.
“We’re in survival mode right now and it was really sudden. There wasn’t a whole lot of preparation [before the Covid-19 hit the United States], said Marissa Leslie, M.D., chair of Psychiatry at Adventist HealthCare in the Columbia Union Visitor’s “Coping in the Time of Covid-19 conversation series.
“We heard the news stories and it seemed like it was far away. It seemed like as soon as the schools closed, that is when panic set in,” shared Leslie. “And every few days a new restriction would come for public safety, but we just lost the sense of control and when you lose the sense of control psychologically you try to control something. It may be the kids online school or it may be your husband making dinner. Your body starts to feel tenser.”
Story by V. Michelle Bernard
This Sabbath 12 of the 23 eligible teams from around the Columbia Union Conference will participate in a virtual union-level Pathfinder Bible Experience (PBE), testing participants on the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Hosea, Amos, Jonah and Micah. The event, originally scheduled for March 21 at New Jersey Conference’s Tranquility Valley Retreat Center in Tranquility, was temporarily postponed due to safety concerns relating to the coronavirus outbreak.
The online event will now take place on Zoom. The results will be broadcast Sunday, April 12, (time to be announced) on the Columbia Union Visitor Facebook page: facebook.com/columbiaunionvisitor.