Religion in the midst of the coronavirus
by Quinn Schoff
Reverend Derek Scalia has led compline prayer (end of the day prayer) on Facebook live every night since the Covid-19 pandemic has started and he’s committed to do that until the state of emergency is lifted.
Scalia is the Arch Deacon of New Hampshire within the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. Deacons work in both the church and the community. Scalia is also the director of retention and diversity at FPU. Being the Arch Deacon of New Hampshire he is the lead organizer of all deacons in the diocese of the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire.
Scalia doesn’t see his faith and personal life as separate from one another. He sees staying at home as an act of deep love of other people. People are staying at home because they love their family members and neighbors and know that there are others who are at much greater risk.
For people that were already on the margins of society this has been incredibly challenging, and it’s shining a light “on the darkness and exposing how brutal our system was before” Scalia said. An example of this is “the deep respect of work, some of the jobs that were maybe dismissed before are now viewed as heroic” he said.
There are three things have opened his eyes due to this pandemic. The first being around the environment and how “we are seeing the earth almost restoring itself.” This has exposed just how destructive our day to day activities are to the environment. It’s not that this is a negative for a positive, it’s just exposing our destructive ways and our flaws within society.
The second is that there is not a region of the world that is not battling or dealing with this in some way. Right now, the whole world is fighting, but not against each other. Scalia said that hopefully we walk away from this with a dismantling of nationalism.
The third thing is that this made us realize the respect for all work. After all of this, Scalia said “maybe a new wave of workers’ rights throughout the world” will emerge along with better working conditions, a living wage, affordable healthcare for people, sick time, and not criticizing people for using sick time.
Scalia connects these points to religion, explaining that we have been bestowed to be stewards of the earth, and the environment is sacred. We are all made in the image of god and we are all equals in the eyes of god so that applies to workers and “workers’ rights (are) honoring the dignity of all people” Scalia said.
Scalia talks about how people aren’t alone and how it’s okay to feel things like being washed over with fear and anxiety. It’s important to remember that there are billions of people around the world standing in solidarity with one another.
Quinn Schoff is trying their best to stay positive and on top of all their work in these stressful times but its definitely hard.
