South Carolina health officials reported Thursday that 1,106 more people tested positive for the coronavirus across the state, bringing the statewide total number of identified cases to 28,962.

Department of Health and Environmental Control officials also reported eight more South Carolinians died after contracting COVID-19. The statewide death toll has now reached 691.

The announcement comes after the state broke its record for the largest single-day increase in cases Wednesday, after DHEC confirmed almost 1,300 cases.

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DHEC announced 1,106 new confirmed cases and 3 new probable cases of COVID-19, and 8 additional confirmed deaths and 2 probable deaths.
https://t.co/YFUYw9AM0C

— SCDHEC (@scdhec) June 25, 2020

[Via email] Dear St. Michaelites and Friends:

What a blessing it has been to have live worship during the month of June, seeing so many of your faces has been truly a gift! We miss you when we can’t see you! Indeed, Three weeks ago on June 7th, and based on the recommendation of the Re-Opening Task Force of St. Michael’s Church, we opened the church doors for worship after being closed for 11 Sundays due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. We reopened on several conditions, including the key condition, that the Covid-19 cases would flatten and decline in South Carolina as well as right here in Charleston.

Since that time, the Re-Opening Task Force, led by Dr. Jerry Reves (Epidemiologist at MUSC) has continued to monitor and meet together. In the last two weeks, Covid-19 cases have sky rocketed both in our state and in our region, with hospitals filling up quickly and new spaces being created for patients. As promised, the Re-Opening Task Force kept meeting to assess, including Monday, June 22. At that time and based on original criteria, the Re-Opening Task Force recommended to the Vestry a pause in our re-opening process. The vestry, wardens and I accepted their recommendation to pause all live-in-person worship taking effect Sunday, July 5.

Beyond the original criteria, we also made the decision based on three other factors:

1). With hospitals filling up so fast, we as St. Michael’s Church cannot contribute to the problem of overflowing Covid-19 units. We want to be part of the solution to flatten the curve.

2). After having been opened for what will be four Sundays, including the funeral for the Rev. Dr. Peter Moore and Carolina Day, this will allow us to have the time to completely sterilize the church and prepare for our eventual reopening.

3). We will also use this time to complete several projects in the Sanctuary including the final installation of our live stream capability to make sure when we do come back in person we will simultaneously also be live on computer.

Personally, I am so glad we had the month of June to be open and see so many of you! That re-opening was a test run to help us be even more effective when we do open up.

In the meantime, we will continue to produce our weekly worship videos and all our zoom discipleship offerings. That continues regardless of any circumstance. I know that for many (including me) this is a very difficult decision. However I want to assure you it is the right decision. As Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 10: “We have the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive.” How do we serve the other? I believe right now the answer is to worship in our homes and participate in the zoom offerings and do our part to help flatten the curve.

You are loved, we are a phone call away. Stay faithful dear friends!

Blessings in Christ,

The Rev. Alfred Zadig, Jr.
Rector

Mr. Leland H. Cox
Senior Warden

Mrs. Laura Waring Gruber
Junior Warden

Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church. Built 1751-1761. #Charleston pic.twitter.com/0uvUO7xpEu

— Charleston photos (@charlestonphoto) January 24, 2016

A special Task Group has been set up to secure the long-term missional sustainability of the Diocese of Carlisle – the Church of England in Cumbria – post COVID-19.

The Financial Planning Task Group is chaired by the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, and has ten other members including the Bishop of Penrith, clergy and members of the Diocesan Board of Finance (DBF).

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, its focus is the sustained growth of church of every kind in the Diocese of Carlisle, supporting mission, ministry and the ecumenical God for All Vision Refresh.

Bishop James said: “As with all other dioceses in the Church of England, our cash flow and overall financial situation has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Almost every part of our income has been affected: churches have been closed, regular giving has fallen and Parish Offer has been affected; investment income is likely to be lower; parochial fees have not been earned as occasional offices such as weddings and funerals in churches have not happened and our commercial and residential tenants are themselves under financial pressure. We still don’t know exactly for how long and to what degree this will be the case….”

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China is testing restaurant workers and delivery drivers block by block. South Korea tells people to carry two types of masks for differing risky social situations. Germany requires communities to crack down when the number of infections hits certain thresholds. Britain will target local outbreaks in a strategy that Prime Minister Boris Johnson calls “Whac-A-Mole.”

Around the world, governments that had appeared to tame the coronavirus are adjusting to the reality that the disease is here to stay. But in a shift away from damaging nationwide lockdowns, they are looking for targeted ways to find and stop outbreaks before they become third or fourth waves.

While the details differ, the strategies call for giving governments flexibility to tighten or ease as needed. They require some mix of intensive testing and monitoring, lightning-fast response times by the authorities, tight border management and constant reminders to their citizens of the dangers of frequent human contact.

The strategies often force central governments and local officials to share data and work closely together, overcoming incompatible computer systems, turf battles and other longstanding bureaucratic rivalries. Already, in Britain, some local officials say their efforts are not coordinated enough.

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How the World Is Learning to Live With a Deadly Pandemic.https://t.co/UvS4paxTLr

— Antonio Navalón (@antonio_navalon) June 24, 2020

Another argument for a post-pandemic revival rests with what is known as “existential security theory,” or the “Religious Comfort Hypothesis”—social scientists’ way of saying there are no atheists in foxholes. Existential security theory was popularized by political scientists Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart in a 2004 study that sought to explain why the global population is getting more religious, not more secular, as conventional wisdom suggests. Their explanation: The continuing experience of death and grief causes people to turn to religion as a balm. Richer and more secure societies, the argument goes, have less “need” for religion because faith in progress and policies—and, in the United States, a belief in our protected status as blessed by the Almighty—stands in for the comforts of traditional religion.

But what happens when natural disasters and societal breakdowns happen in industrialized countries like the U.S.?

The best case study for the Religious Comfort Hypothesis was the February 2011 earthquake that devastated Christchurch in New Zealand, by any measure a highly secularized country. It was the worst disaster in the country in 80 years. One-third of the city’s buildings were destroyed and 185 people were killed in an urban region of fewer than 400,000. Chris Sibley, a psychology professor at the University of Auckland, and Joseph Bulbulia, a religious studies professor there, were in the midst of a longitudinal study of the values of New Zealanders when the earthquake struck. So they had data from before the disaster to compare with behaviors immediately afterward. “Consistent with the Religious Comfort Hypothesis, religious faith increased among the earthquake-affected, despite an overall decline in religious faith elsewhere,” they concluded.

At first blush, this seems to be true for the coronavirus response, as well. A study just published by Danish economics professor Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, a leading researcher on the religious coping phenomenon, argues that, based on rates of Google searches for prayer, “the demand for religion has risen dramatically since the onset of the pandemic.”

“A pandemic this size potentially changes our societies for years to come, especially if it impacts our deep-rooted values and beliefs. I find that the COVID-19 crisis impacts one of the deepest rooted of human behaviors: religion,” Bentzen tweeted.

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[Linda Bell]….told council members she was “alarmed and disheartened” at the number of people not wearing masks, particularly young adults.

While most teenagers and young adults are most resistant to becoming seriously ill from the virus, “you’re imposing that risk . . . on others.”

She added: “These measures from the local jurisdictions are badly needed.”

Under the new emergency ordinance, masks would be required for anyone:

▪ Inside a public building or waiting to enter a public building

▪ Interacting with someone within six feet in an outdoor space

▪ Engaged in business in a private space

▪ Using public or private transportation

▪ Walking in public where maintaining a six-foot distance from others may not be possible.

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Columbia now requires you to wear a mask to combat coronavirus. Here are the details https://t.co/hOxML4r56N

— Teri Browne (@TeriBrowne) June 23, 2020

Following extended conversations with and consultation of seminary faculty, alumni and friends, Dean Todd D. Still, Ph.D., announced today, with strong support from university administration, the formation of a Wesley House of Studies at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. In conjunction, he announced that Dr. William J. Abraham, a theologian, philosopher, author and minister, will serve as the founding director of this strategic initiative.

In this role, Abraham will ensure that students attending Truett from Wesleyan traditions are nurtured and networked for the ministries into which they are being called. Additionally, Abraham, who will regularly teach courses at Truett pertaining to Wesleyan thought and practice, will collaborate with individuals, congregations and organizations in the Wesleyan tradition in the recruiting, training and placing of students and in supporting and educating ministers who are already engaged in gospel service.

“From its inception in 1994, Baylor’s Truett Seminary — an orthodox, evangelical school in the historic Baptist tradition embedded into a major research university — has been blessed to train ministerial students primarily, though not exclusively, from baptistic congregations,” said Still, The Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran Delancey Dean and The William M. Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures. “In recent years, however, Wesleyan students and churches have begun to turn increasingly to Truett as a desirable destination location for theological education. We have, in turn, warmly welcomed these Christian friends into our seminary community, which exists to train God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. The establishment of The Wesley House of Studies at Baylor’s Truett Seminary strengthens further this ongoing practice and places Truett on a trajectory to become an increasingly multidenominational school while holding steadfast and true to its doctrinal and ecclesial commitments.”

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Big news again today in the Wesleyan/Methodist world. We thought he might be retiring, but Billy’s back! #baylor https://t.co/DvhQkDSiys

— Ryan Nicholas Danker (@RyanNDanker) June 24, 2020

Eternal God, we give thanks for the gifts that thou didst bestow upon thy servant James Weldon Johnson: a heart and voice to praise thy Name in verse. As he gave us powerful words to glorify you, may we also speak with joy and boldness to banish hatred from thy creation, in the Name of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates James Weldon Johnson, Poet 1938 https://t.co/rs2KlVpGyT

Poet, novelist, songwriter, editor, historian, civil rights leader, diplomat, lawyer & educator, James Wheldon Johnson was a true Renaissance man

Portrait in NPG (Smithsonian) pic.twitter.com/qEL99X5tVB

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) June 25, 2020

Almighty God, who thyself art love, fill us with the spirit of thy holy love; that our hearts being enkindled by thee, we may for ever love thee, and each other in thee, and all men for thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.

–The Rev. James Mountain (1844-1933)

O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually!

–Psalm 105:1-4