There are a number of ways that spiritual and faith leaders can continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than get caught up in constantly changing metrics or politically charged situations, it can sometimes be helpful to focus on the most fundamental practices that lead toward safer choices for the whole community. The Wisconsin Council of Churches has worked closely with the Wisconsin Community Response and Resilience Task Force to develop a set of brief documents which may be helpful for quick reference.
These documents include some grounding principles and best practices for:
- Preventing and Slowing the Spread of COVID-19
- Communicating about COVID-19 Exposures and Outbreaks
- What to do when you’ve found out someone in your faith community is COVID-positive
- A model letter for communicating to those who may have been exposed
- See also: more detailed guidelines for dealing with outbreaks in K-12 schools (Particularly useful if you have a day care or church school – but also for the entire faith community.)
Dear Pastors and Leaders: when you find out someone in your faith community is COVID positive, it is natural to be flustered and/or anxious. This happens to even the most grounded leader. Take a moment to breathe and pray before your next steps. You may want to cut and paste these recommended to-do’s and place them in your planner or by your computer. Make sure you fill in the key phone numbers so you’re not searching for them in a moment of crisis.
What to do when you find out someone in your church is COVID positive and it’s hard to think clearly:
- Respond pastorally to the infected person and their immediate family. See if they have immediate needs.
- Find out which in-person/physical church events they attended in the last 2 weeks. Look up the attendance list.
- Contact the local or tribal health department (Name/number:
- Use your communication template to reach out to people who were at those events and recommend testing.
- Notify local church leaders and judicatory leaders. (Names/numbers:
- Use your communication template to reach out to the whole church with general information.
- Make arrangements to cancel upcoming in-person/physical church events for at least 2 weeks.
- Make arrangements to have the church building thoroughly cleaned before re-entry.
Download the Toolkit Documents:
