What is the advice that you would give clergy?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the unspoken dimensions of this crisis is that we haven’t been able to have the rituals of bereavement that help us get through these moments. It expands the grief because we haven’t had that release. People didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.<\/p>\n
So we as clergy have to be comforters in this hour in an age when people are cynical about a lot of their institutions. There’s an epidemic of mental health, and other issues that are now beginning to manifest. We see it in gun violence, domestic violence, alcoholism, and all of these things are tearing at the fabric of our faith. And so we have to double down as clergy.<\/p>\n
We also have to ask who comforts the healers. So many clergies are not really good at self-care. We need to be mindful of how we take care of ourselves so that we can serve others.<\/p>\n
Another group that is struggling are health care workers. What spiritual counsel do you offer them? <\/strong><\/p>\n Being the child of a nurse, I know what it’s like when people do a double shift, or when somebody at home doesn’t have their mother at Christmas dinner. At Harlem Hospital, we supported the creation of an Oasis Center in the hospital, where staff could go just to get a break, a room of quiet and serenity where they can listen to the sound of a babbling brook and breathe eucalyptus or hear soothing music. Two weeks ago I got word that a member of the church had COVID. I’ve been in hospitals many, many times, but I had to put on a mask, put on a hairnet, gloves, the whole PPE. <\/p>\n
Then I went into the room and as soon as I saw our church member, I realized it would probably be the last time I’d see him. As I was offering my prayer and my humanity, holding his hand, I realized that health care professionals are in this all the time, risking everything so that we might be well.<\/p>\n
It made me redouble our efforts to practice and preach on social distancing. The whole notion that we’re in this together has to be coming from the pulpits. We need to say that it doesn’t matter what public policy or the law says, it’s the right thing because otherwise, we make their sacrifice meaningless. We wear a seat belt, buckle up seat belts. Motorcyclists put on a helmet. Everyone, put on that mask, protect yourself, protect your brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
That is the message: We all share health. What else can we all be doing that you want to make sure we know?<\/strong><\/p>\n Stay connected. Somebody just needs you to call and say, I was thinking about you. Somebody needs you to say, I’d like to do shopping for you. We need to go the extra mile for each other. And pray.<\/p>\n
The late Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, my mentor at Canaan Baptist Church who had been Martin Luther King’s chief of staff, talked about “anyhow faith” — entering into situations where you don’t know what the outcome is going to be and giving each your best anyhow. Even when we don’t know when or how the win will come, we have to remain convicted that the best is yet to come.<\/p>\n
View the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n