The Coronavirus Diaries: Time in Between

Wednesday July 1 2020

The Rev Carola Tron, Moderator Mesa Valdense in the Iglesia Evangélica Valdense del Río de la Plata, reflects on how churches can respond to the changes brought by lockdown.

Covid-19 arrived in the Rio de la Plata (Argentina and Uruguay) and the region during March, at the beginning of the autumn season.

Now we are starting winter time. At the national level, the restrictions are changing, but we are wondering what will happen during the coldest days. During this time, we have heard many reflections related to health systems, social programmes, growing levels of gender based violence and unemployment. Depending on the wind of political parties, there are more liberal or more social-protective ways to respond to the pandemic.

Although being conscious about the complexity of the national, regional and global situation during the pandemic and how it will affect us after it, I would like to share some thoughts about the time in between.

Time in between became a new ‘soul station’. Free time, great agenda changes, deceleration of the routines and yet anxieties and uncertainties about near future became bigger than in those common regular days of a recent past that is gone.

Deceleration brought new possibilities. A lot of families started to grow their own vegetables, to make washable masks, to cook homemade food, to share parenting and daily duties at home.

People also began to share longer conversations, and to worship in new ways from home. Church buildings were closed, but instead were opened in every home, every week and with many more people attending than Sunday morning at the chapel.

We will have to think theologically about how to became living churches in these new contexts, how to be disciples and co-operate in God´s mission in new contexts.

We know temptation as humans is always to go back to the known, to ‘normality’ as an illusion or a negation of the fact that every point in time is completely new, the rest is part of the past. Time in between, the stasis of the soul, helps us to remember our finitude, our interdependency with the rest of creation, and to leave the future in God´s hands. Because God´s promise will be fulfilled: “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5. NVI)

The Iglesia Evangélica Valdense del Río de la Plata (Waldensian Evangelical Church of the Rio de la Plata) is a partner church of the Church of Scotland.

The Coronavirus Diaries: updates from Church of Scotland partners around the world

Malawi: 'My identity in Christ remains unchanged'
Jerusalem: Being Rather than Doing
Malawi: No Lockdown and an Election
Zambia: 'I will never leave you... or forsake you'
Czech Republic: The Covid Cover-up
Zambia: 'All Life is Sacred'
Israel/Palestine: 'The Air is Clear'
Nepal: 'Please Pray for Us'
Malawi: Tough Dilemmas
Italy: 'Together, We Will Get Through It'