The Perpetual Pivot

Susan Cartmell has led churches for forty years. Author of UnCommon Preaching: An Alternative to the Lectionary, she was among the first women to lead a multi-staff church. Learn more at her website susancartmell.com. Peggy O'Connor has served as an interim pastor in Massachusetts and as a spiritual director in Lowell and Boston. Now she is a chaplain administrator for the Chautauqua UCC Society in New York. She is also a psychotherapist.

This is the story of unsung heroes: the clergy, in so many churches, who quietly changed the world they knew and reimagined their roles in order to lead their people, and their communities, during an international crisis. As the COVID-19 pandemic held everyone in its grip, these authors asked what happened to the church. How did churches cope? When people could not crowd into sanctuaries or share rituals in person or listen to choirs sing, how did the clergy reinvent worship online? When clergy were restricted from the hospitals where they were accustomed to visiting the sick and comforting the dying, how did they reach people? When the pandemic exposed new needs for food and clothing and racial justice in many communities, how did religious leaders respond? The authors interviewed fifty-three clergy from Cape Cod to Alaska asking them questions about how the pandemic challenged them and changed their churches. This book is full of stories about the sacrifices they made and the heroism they displayed, as well as the lessons the clergy learned--lessons that will shape the future of faith.