Faith leaders reflect on year of pandemic

(12 Mar 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4315397 In a pandemic-wracked year, religious leaders and spiritual counselors across the U.S. ministered to the ill, fed the hungry, consoled the bereaved. Some did so while recovering from COVID-19 themselves or mourning the loss of their own family members and friends. At times, they despaired. So many people got sick, so many died, and these faith leaders couldn't hug the ailing and the grieving, or hold their hands.   For safety's sake, their congregations were kept away from in-person services for months, but the need to minister to them only intensified. Amid the grief and anxiety, these faith leaders showed resilience and found reasons for hope as they re-imagined their mission. Here are some of their reflections on a trying year. -- In the early weeks of the pandemic, the Rev. Joseph Dutan lost his father to the coronavirus. Days earlier Dutan's mentor and friend, 49-year-old Jorge Ortiz-Garay, had become the first Roman Catholic priest in the U.S. to die from COVID-19. "It was scary at the beginning. It was scary not knowing what's to do, especially  being alone here and just being ordained two years, not knowing what do I do, how can I help the situation? How can I help the people out? And how do I deal with with one's own emotions?" He mourned his father while consoling the community of St. Brigid, a Catholic church in an area straddling Brooklyn and Queens that had among the highest infection rates in New York City. For Esther Roman, a chaplain at New York's Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, the pandemic has entailed ministering to one grieving family after another. She and others have had to learn to transmit love and support via computer screens and through face shields and masks. "It was stressful because you would see moments that were supposed to be beautiful, that deserved to be beautiful," she said. In Friendswood, Texas, a suburb of Houston, pastor of Friendswood Methodist Church the Rev. Jim Bass reflected on what he thought congregants needed most after a year in a pandemic. "I think there's a real longing really at this point to return back to what it was before and even just to reestablish community with each other." Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Encino, California spoke about the source of his community's resilience. He said, "Our community has survived pogroms and Holocausts and expulsions and plagues in the past. And as scary and as bad as COVID is, our ancestors never stopped being Jewish because of those things and we're not going to stop being Jewish because of this." ____ Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/10201102858... Tumblr: https://aparchives.tumblr.com/​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...