News
Friday, July 22, 2022
How the Digital Divide & Digital Reluctance Impact Churches During the Covid-19 Pandemic
by Emmy Riordan and Heidi A Campbell The following guest post was submitted by the Network of New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies, one of our collaborating organizations. Interested in submitting your research to be featured? Learn more and contact us! Church leaders encounter
Monday, July 11, 2022
Facing COVID and Other Crises, Boulder Church Learns to Listen, Adapt
By Tracy Simmons Origami butterflies with the names of those who died from COVID hang from the rafters of First Congregational Church, UCC in Boulder, Colorado/Contributed Like most congregations across the U.S., First Congregational Church, UCC in Boulder, Colorado was rattled by COVID-19.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Webinar Recording and FAQ: The Pandemic’s Impact on Churches
In late June, our researchers presented a webinar hosted by Hartford International University for Religion and Peace entitled "The Pandemic’s Impact on Churches: What the Data Show Thus Far" in which they discussed findings from three recent surveys taken from 5,000 churches about how congregatio
Friday, May 27, 2022
Roleplaying as a Refuge: UU Church Engages Youth Through Dungeons and Dragons During Pandemic
By Tracy Simmons Photo of Dungeons and Dragons dice by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash A recent study from the Hartford Institute of Religion Research shows when churches pivoted to virtual worship during the pandemic, children’s and youth programming took one of the biggest hits. Whi
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Survey Shows Religious Education Hit Hard by Pandemic
HARTFORD, CT — With summer just around the corner, many churches are gearing up for the return of in-person Vacation Bible School. However, a new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research shows that although most surveyed congregations (90%) have already returned to face-to-face
Saturday, March 26, 2022
For Denver Church, Online Worship Is Way to Save For Permanent Building
By Tracy Simmons Computer and bible on a desk at home with a videoconference on the screen/IStock When members of Faith Community Baptist Church of Denver realized the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t going to budge, they decided to embrace “Zoom church” in an extended way. The 60-member chu
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Covid, Churches and Community Service
By Patricia Tevington, PhD While we are gratefully observing a decline in cases and an accompanying loosening of safety measures (at least at the time of this writing-- March 2022), the pandemic nevertheless caused damaging effects on many aspects of social life in addition to individual illness
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
How Pastors Became Entrepreneurs by Engaging Technology During the Pandemic
by Sophia Osteen The following guest post was submitted by Sophia Osteen of the Network of New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies, one of our collaborating organizations. Interested in submitting your research to be featured? Learn more and contact us! The Tech in Churches During
Friday, February 25, 2022
Can churches be protectors of public health?
The relationship between public health and faith is far older than the COVID-19 pandemic. Fred de Noyelle/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Andrew Gardner, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace Over the past two years of living with COVID-19, many churches have