Germany – Recovira

Keeping the Masks on: Worship Services during and after COVID-19 in Japan

Posted on November 28, 2023 - 12:29 pm by Dunja Sharbat Dar

Dunja Sharbat Dar, PhD candidate, Center for Religious Studies at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese Christians went digital as quickly as possible, following the example of many other religious groups all over the world. But Japanese Christians only went into a full lockdown for a few months, quickly wanting to reunite in person. Continuing streaming online even up until today, Christians started to meet up wearing masks, keeping distance, and following newly established hygiene concepts. When I was in Japan for my fieldwork in 2022 and 2023, I visited a couple of churches for my research on religious atmospheres, which allowed me to also assess their situation during COVID-19.

The number of Christians in Japan is relatively low (only about 1-2% of Japanese people are officially registered as Christians^[1]). Most Christian congregations consist of elderly people who were particularly at risk of getting infected with the new virus. So, many churches such as the Sekiguchi Catholic Church in Tokyo tried to protect their congregants by introducing registry and membership passes. Members and visitors of the church had to register for a pass with their contact information in order to enter the church at the Sunday mass.

When I first came to the Sekiguchi Catholic Church, I was asked to write down all relevant data to receive the entrance pass with my name on it. It is not unusual that you are asked to write down your name upon entering a church in Japan, a practice which many churches continue in order to count and archive the numbers of visitors each week. But the fact that I could not enter the church without a visitor’s pass made me understand how seriously the Sekiguchi Catholic Church was taking the protection of their members in 2022. In many places around the world, many restrictions had already been dropped in 2022 due to the success of vaccines. However, all of the Japanese churches I visited in 2022 (6 in total) still required wearing a mask and registering as visitor in some way or another.

Sekiguchi Catholic Church uses a big cathedral, the St. Mary’s Cathedral that also serves as the seat of the archdiocese of Tokyo. The steel construction with bare concrete walls on the inside — an internationally acclaimed architectural design by Japanese architect Tange Kenzo^[2] — can fit about 800 participants on Sundays, but during the pandemic, only a small number of people from the congregation (that counts over 2000 registered members as a whole) dared to come to the Sunday masses. The 80 to 150 people that visited the 8am and 10am masses in these times had their temperatures checked upon entering the church, used disinfectant regularly, wore FFP2 masks and took their seats far from each other on the benches in the worship hall.

During my interviews at Sekiguchi Catholic Church, the priest told me that many members hadn’t come to church for a long time because of the pandemic. They fear the risk, and so they rather watch the livestreams posted to YouTube regularly from the safety of their homes. I often wondered if these members would ever be able to feel comfortable and protected enough to attend the masses in person again. Considering that most livestreams of the church mainly focus on presenting the liturgy, the feeling of active community only transpired marginally. At the same time, one sees what’s going on more closely due to the camera setting filming the altar.^[3]

Even now in late 2023, the church regularly streams their masses. The acolytes, choir leader and many members still wear masks, the exception being the priest when performing the liturgy. Other churches like the young congregation of the Evangelical Friends Church in Tokyo have long said good-bye to masks, happily celebrating their “back to normal” services with the benefits of freely singing, eating and finally seeing each other’s faces again.^[4] But the Sekiguchi Catholic Church seems to be keeping the masks on in order to protect the others. It remains a question if and when the church might go back to celebrating the masses without the protection of masks.

References

[1] Roemer, Michael K. 2009. ‘Religious Affiliation in Contemporary Japan: Untangling the Enigma’. Review of Religious Research 50 (3): 298–320. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25593743; Roemer, Michael K. 2012. ‘Japanese Survey Data on Religious Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices in the Twenty-First Century’. In Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions, edited by Inken Prohl and John K. Nelson, 23–58. Leiden: BRILL.
[2] Löffler, Beate. 2011. Fremd und Eigen. Christlicher Sakralbau in Japan seit 1853. Berlin: Frank & Timme, p. 191.
[3] See Sekiguchi Catholic Church livestreams on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@user-tc4dk8bm9c/streams.
[4] The Friends Church is another case study that I visited in 2022. They still stream their Sunday services online, but made it a priority to gather and eat together in person as soon as possible in 2021.

Image: St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tokyo, church building of the Sekiguchi Catholic Church. (c) Dunja Sharbat Dar

Studying religion means working Sundays

Posted on September 20, 2023 - 11:54 am by Gero Menzel

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Going into the first field, the Diocese of Limburg, I came prepared to also work Sundays. After deciding to postpone the second case, Islam, because field access turned out to be more complicated than expected, I moved on with our third case study on Hinduism, not expecting Sunday to become the focal point of my research activity again. But that’s how it was My contact person from our cooperation partner invited me to join her to visit the temple on Sunday.

The first thing I want to reflect on, is that researching religion, at least in many contexts, conflicts with the academic work schedule and with how we organize our ‘work-life-balance’. Sundays in Germany are usually regarded as days of non-work, days of leisure. At the same time, they are workdays for religious workers and it is a day of non-work or a day of informal work for visitors of religious services; the second being the role we tend to get assigned and/or accept as researchers.

The second thing I want to dwell on, is that when and on which days we conduct our research is also important. Our impression of the research field might be influenced drastically by when we visit. To generate a contrasting case for my research in the first case study, the Diocese of Limburg, I visited a week day service. It was a Tuesday service and it fit well into my work schedule. I could go there before heading to the office. The experience was completely different from Sundays; I was the youngest by far. Of course, while my schedule allowed me to go to Church on a Weekday morning, everybody else except retirees was not able to attend. So ethnographic research includes adapting our schedule to our research field or deciding why we deviate from our field’s usual schedule, be it for pragmatic or methodological reasons.

By getting to know the rhythm, the schedule of our field, we also learn something about it (Elliott et al., 2016). Which days are important in living religion and for whom? We have to ask, whose schedule or which sub-schedule are we adapting to? How far can we adapt with our personal life, our employment conditions?

Sunday being the day for communal, for religious gathering is linked to how Christianity shaped the work schedules in Germany and other Christian majority countries and still does, together with labor unions and other forces of civil society. By looking at when religious communities gather, we can learn about how they relate to the majority and other religious communities. In how far Sunday becomes the day for religious activities and gathering, might also show how religious communities might relate to European secularity sedimented in temporal orders. It might also show us how established religious communities are, by how far they are able to follow their own temporal orders.

Studying religion means navigating and reflecting the temporal practices.

References

Elliott, S., McKelvy, J. N., & Bowen, S. (2016). Marking time in ethnography: Uncovering temporal dispositions. Ethnography, 18(4), 556–576. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138116655360

Image credit: Image provided by the author

ReCoVirA Deutschland – Zeiten der Erholung?

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 11:22 am by Gero Menzel

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Am 8. April wurden die letzten Corona-Maßnahmen, die FFP2-Maskenpflicht in Krankenhäusern und Apotheken, nicht verlängert. Damit ist Deutschland zumindest politisch in einen post-pandemischen Zustand eingetreten. Der größte Teil des gesellschaftlichen und auch des kirchlichen Lebens ist schon länger zu einer Art ‚neuer alter Normalität‘ zurückgekehrt.

Als wir Mitte März in die Feldphase eintraten, erlebten wir, das deutsche ReCoVirA-Team, ein Feld, in dem die Auswirkungen der Pandemie noch präsent waren. Die Zahlen der Gottesdienstbesucher sind oft niedriger als vor der Pandemie, die Menschen zögern immer noch, sich die Hände für den Friedensgruß zu schütteln, die Hände werden vor der Spendung der Eucharistie desinfiziert und einige andere Hygienemaßnahmen sind noch immer in Kraft. Doch viele ist momentan in Bewegung. Der beliebte Livestream aus der Bischofskapelle in Limburg, der im März 2020 gleich zu Beginn des ersten Lockdowns seinen Anfang fand, wurde nach einem Stream Ostermesse eingestellt. Viele Arten von Veranstaltungen, Gottesdiensten und Zusammenkünften, die während der Pandemie entstanden sind, wurden bereits eingestellt, werden derzeit eingestellt oder an die neuen Gegebenheiten angepasst. Ramadan 2022 war der erste Ramadan seit zwei Jahren ohne Corona-Beschränkungen, Ramadan 2023 bereits der zweite.

Die Gesellschaft und mit ihr die Religionsgemeinschaften scheinen sich auf ein Leben nach der Pandemie eingestellt zu haben. Das bedeutet nicht, dass die Auswirkungen der letzten drei Jahre einfach verschwunden sind, aber in einem Zustand der Erholung, eine etwas begrenzte Übersetzung des englischen Wortes recovery, nach dem sich Akronym ReCoVirA bildet, haben sich die Praktiken verändert. Wie Stephan Lessenich in seinem Buch Nicht mehr normal beschreibt, ist Normalität etwas, das durch alltägliche Praktiken hergestellt wird. Das Gleiche gilt für Prozesse der Wiederherstellung oder der Rückkehr zur Normalität. Das bedeutet, dass wir in diesen Zeiten der Erholung beobachten können, welche Praktiken und Mechanismen in einem post-pandemischen Zustand zur Anwendung kommen, wie sie verhandelt werden und welche Prioritäten sich herausbilden.

Anknüpfend an einige Vorgängerstudien (CONTOC, midi, ReTeOG…) geht es nun um die Frage: “Wie formieren sich Religionsgemeinschaften angesichts aller Herausforderungen, Veränderungen und der in der Pandemie entwickelten Kreativität?”. An diese Frage knüpft an eine andere an, nämlich wie sich die Rolle der Religion im öffentlichen Leben verändert hat und verändert. Der Religionsmonitor 2023 legt nahe, dass die Religion in der Corona-Krise, wenn es Angebote im Umgang mit Krisen geht, nicht mehr den gleichen gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert wie zuvor hat. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass Politik und Medizin im Krisenmanagement und der Orientierung in Krisen von den Bürger:innen als wichtiger wahrgenommen wurden. Religiöse Einrichtungen sind für religiöse Menschen nach wie vor eine wichtige Ressource und eine wichtige gesellschaftliche Institution in Krisenzeiten, aber ihre gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmung scheint sich verändert zu haben.

Die Einschränkungen durch die Pandemie haben die Religionsgemeinschaften gezwungen, sich für digitale Formate und eine digitalisierte Öffentlichkeit zu öffnen. Allerdings sind nicht alle Religionsgemeinschaften online gegangen und nicht alle haben sich mit diesem Umfeld vertraut gemacht. Wird dies insbesondere traditionelle Religionsgemeinschaften in den gegenwärtigen Zeiten multipler Krisen auf einer tieferen Ebene beeinflussen? Wie gehen die Religionsgemeinschaften mit der digitalisierten Öffentlichkeit um, insbesondere die der jüngeren Generationen?

Literature

Churches Online in Times of Corona (CONTOC) (2021). Ergebnisse zur CONTOC-Studie, Sektion Deutschland. Aufbauend auf die erste ökumenische Tagung am 13.4.2021. PDF-Bericht. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Ergebnisse-zur-CONTOC-Deutschland-Tagung-13.04.2021-1.pdf.

CONTOC2 (28. September 2022). Für die evangelischen Kirchen in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Foliensatz. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CONTOC2-Erste-Ergebnisse.pdf.

Hillenbrand, C., Pollack, D., & El-Menouar, Y. (2023). Religion als Ressource der Krisenbewältigung? Analysen am Beispiel der Coronapandemie. Religionsmonitor: Vol. 2023. Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Hörsch, D. (2020). Digitale Verkündigungsformate während der Corona-Krise.: Eine Ad-hoc-Studie im Auftrag der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland. Evangelische Arbeitsstelle midi. https://www.mi-di.de/media/pages/materialien/digitale-verkuendigungsformate-waehrend-der-corona-krise/f0b254d2b8-1598620182/midi-ad-hoc-studie-digitale-verkuendigungsformate-waehrend-der-corona-krise.pdf

Hörsch, D. (2021). Gottesdienstliches Leben während der Pandemie.: Verkündigungsformate und ausgewählte Handlungsfelder kirchlicher Praxis – Ergebnisse einer midi-Vergleichsstudie. Evangelische Arbeitsstelle midi. https://www.mi-di.de/media/pages/materialien/gottesdienstliches-leben-waehrend-der-pandemie/065d6d852f-163223314/midi_gottesdienstliches-leben-waehrend-der-pandemie.pdf

Lessenich, S. (2022). Nicht mehr normal : Gesellschaft am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs. Hanser.

Reimann, R. P & Sievert, H. (2021). Studie zu Online-Gottesdiensten 2021: Update der Befragungsstudie „Rezipiententypologie evangelischer Online-Gottesdienstbesucher*innen während und nach der Corona-Krise“. https://medienpool.ekir.de/A/Medienpool/92419?encoding=UTF-8

Schlag, T., & Nord, I. (2021). Kirche in Zeiten der Pandemie: Erfahrungen – Einsichten – Folgerungen : Einblicke in die internationale und ökumenische CONTOC-Studie. Deutsches Pfarrerblatt. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-217645

Image credit: AI image generated using Leonardo.AI
“An illustration showcasing the use of digital tools, such as smartphones or tablets, by religious leaders or practitioners to connect with their communities virtually”

ReCoVirA Germany – Times of recovery?

Posted on June 23, 2023 - 11:15 am by Gero Menzel

Gero Menzel, Research Associate, Goethe University Frankfurt

Recently, on the 8th of April, the last corona measures, ffp2-masks being compulsory in hospitals and pharmacies, were not prolonged and Germany has now at least politically entered a post-pandemic state. Most of social life as well as religious life had already reverted back to a somewhat “new old normal”.

Entering the field phase in mid-March, we, the German ReCoVirA team, experienced a field were effects of the pandemic were still present. Attendance is often lower than before the pandemic, People are still hesitant shaking hands for the rite of peace, hands are disinfected before the administration of the Eucharist and some other hygiene measures are still in place. Currently there is a lot of change. The popular livestream from the bishop’s chapel in Limburg, which was established in March 2020, was discontinued after Easter mass. Many types of events, services and gatherings adapted during the pandemic have been discontinued, are being discontinued or adjusted to new circumstances. Ramadan 2022 marked the first Ramadan in two years without corona restrictions, Ramadan 2023 already the second.

Society and with it religious communities seem to have moved on to a post-pandemic life. That doesn’t mean that the impact of the last 3 years has just disappeared, but in a state of recovery, on which the acronym ReCoVirA models itself, practices have shifted. As Stephan Lessenich points out in his book Nicht mehr normal, normality is something produced by every-day practices. The same can be said to processes of recovery or reverting back to normalcy. This means in these times of recovery we can observe which practices and mechanisms are invoked in a post-pandemic state, how they are negotiated and which priorities emerge.

Following up on some predecessor studies (CONTOC, midi, ReTeOG…), the question transforms to “How do religious communities (re-)shape themselves in light of all challenges, changes and creativity of the pandemic?”. This question link to another about how the role of religion in public life changed and changes. The Religionsmonitor 2023 suggests that following the corona crisis religion does not have the same social standing as before, when it comes to dealing with crisis. Politics and medicine have shown to be perceived as more important to citizens, when it comes to crisis management and orientation in times of crisis. Religious institutions remain an important resource for the religious as well as an important social institution in times of crisis, but their social perception seems to have changed. The restrictions of the pandemic have compelled religious communities to open up to digital formats and a digitized public sphere. But not all religious communities went online and not everyone became familiar with these surroundings. Will this affect especially traditional religious communities in the current times of multiple crises on a deeper level? How do religious communities engage with the digitized public sphere, especially the younger generations?

Literature

CONTOC2 (28. September 2022). Für die evangelischen Kirchen in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Foliensatz. https://contoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CONTOC2-Erste-Ergebnisse.pdf.

Hillenbrand, C., Pollack, D., & El-Menouar, Y. (2023). Religion als Ressource der Krisenbewältigung? Analysen am Beispiel der Coronapandemie. Religionsmonitor: Vol. 2023. Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Lessenich, S. (2022). Nicht mehr normal : Gesellschaft am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs. Hanser.