Amid COVID-19, Most Churches Provide Hybrid Worship, Half Stopped Picnics

A New Study Shows That ‘the Pandemic Has Had a Profound Impact Across the Religious Spectrum, and That Some Churches Are Faring Better Than Others,’ Said Scholar Scott Thumma.

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Overall, the study found that 17% of churches had one or more members die of COVID-19 and 37% had a least one staff member test positive for the virus.

The study also found widely varying giving patterns. While 4 in 10 churches saw an increase in giving, another 3 in 10 reported a decline in donations from members.

The study, titled “Navigating the Pandemic: A First Look at Congregational Responses,” is the first of a new five-year project led by the institute at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly known as Hartford Seminary). It is based on a collaboration among 13 denominations from the Faith Communities Today cooperative partnership and institute staffers.

It has an estimated overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The multiyear “Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations” project is funded by the Lilly Endowment.

“Churches and the Pandemic” Graphic courtesy of HIRR

This article originally appeared here.

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AdelleMBanks@churchleaders.com'
Adelle M Bankshttp://religionnews.com
Adelle M. Banks, production editor and a national reporter, joined RNS in 1995. An award-winning journalist, she previously was the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and a reporter at The Providence Journal and newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Syracuse and Binghamton.

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