Cheryl McMurray – A COVID ministry

May 06, 2020

Cheryl McMurray has been the student minister for the Arden Pastoral Charge for the past two and half years. She was looking forward to ordination on May 15th, having cleared all of the necessary interviews in early March.

Needless to say, all of that has changed. The annual regional meeting of the United Church of Canada, where the ordination was to take place, has been put off until the last weekend of September, “and even that, of course, depends on what is happening in September,” she said, in an interview from her home north of Port Hope.

The change in scheduling for her ordination is not something she dwells on, however. Trying to keep op with all of the demands of her ministry with parishioners in Arden, Henderson, and Mountain Grove using through virtual means has been a challenge.

Until late March, she spent her working week in Arden, and went home for a two day weekend. Now, she is at home most of the time, communicating through virtual means with parishioners, using all the means we have all become used to. Meetings are held on Zoom, conversations are over the phone or by email instead at the kitchen table or on the back porch, sermons are printed out and also delivered during services that are uploaded to Youtube. Ever week or two, Cheryl’s Reaching out messages are posted on the church website.

Six weeks into the pandemic, Cheryl said that she has developed a sense of the “new normal” that she talked about in one of her recent services. Some of those lessons have been nerve racking, however.

“When I went to upload the Easter Service, which was the first one that I tried, I thought it would take a half an hour to upload, so I started the upload on Saturday morning. I was wrong. It took about 15 hours to upload. I was waking up and checking all night. It was finally up at 3am on Easter Sunday.”

The regular weekly gatherings at the church, such as Thursday morning coffee and the youth group are being held over Zoom, and a governance meeting was held over Zoom as well.

Cheryl is still coming to Arden for a couple of days every two weeks. She records the services from the church pulpit, delivers activity packages to parish children, and does some other work that can only be done in person.

Aside from that, she is available at all times through the church phone number, which is linked to her cellphone, and through email.

“At least people in our area, people are able to step outside and enjoy their property,” she said. “Some of our parishioners are seasonal summer residents who are joining our meetings even though they are still in Toronto. It is even harder for them. But people are getting anxious to be in company. It was hard not to be with family at Easter and it is hard again with Mother’s Day this weekend.

“But with everyone in the parish working together, we make sure are reaching out to everyone. I think we a are doing that pretty well. Luckily people have been doing well, and we have not had any serious illnesses or deaths in the community so far.”

While it is harder than normal to make sure that the entire church community is being looked after without being able to see people around the church and village or by visiting, Cheryl is grateful that she has developed personal connections over the last two and a half years.

“It is much easier to feel at home on the phone or over email with someone you already know in person. It would not be as easy if I were new to the parish,” she said.

Over the next few weeks, the national church will be providing guidance about how the church can be re-opened, with modified social distancing in place.

For now, Cheryl McMurray will continue to be just a phone call away at all times, using technology that she is just now mastering to maintain her presence in the lives of her parishioners in Mountain Grove, Henderson, and Arden.