News
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Reflections on Shared Themes in the “Navigating the Pandemic” and “When Pastors Put on the Tech Hat” Reports
by Heidi A. Campbell, PhD The following guest post was submitted by Dr. Heidi A. Campbell 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 resear
Monday, November 29, 2021
Tech in Churches During COVID-19 Research Project Publishes First Report
by Heidi A. Campbell, PhD The following guest post was submitted by Dr. Heidi A. Campbell 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! Tech in C
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
New Report Offers First Glimpse of How U.S. Congregations Are Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic
HARTFORD, CT – In November the Hartford Institute for Religion Research released a study giving the first glimpse of how U.S. congregations are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, and data shows that congregational life is far from being “back to normal.”
Friday, August 6, 2021
Pandemic Past, Pandemic Present: Masks and Social Distancing
By Andrew Gardner, PhD Last week, the Center for Disease Control updated their recommendations for combatting the new Delta variant of the coronavirus. New data suggests that while vaccines are still highly effective against severe disease and hospitalization from t
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Hartford Seminary Receives $5 million Lilly Endowment Grant
Hartford Seminary has been awarded a five-year, $5.3 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to fund research into how congregations are changing, innovating, and establishing new ministry practices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research (HIRR) will
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Pandemic Past, Pandemic Present: Church is Cancelled
By Andrew Gardner, PhD In March of 2020, congregations across the United States made drastic and abrupt changes to their worship services and programming, shifting from in person gatherings to digital gatherings via Zoom and Youtube. One survey found that from March 8 to March 22, 2020, 84% of
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
How Have Congregations Adapted to the Covid-19 Pandemic?: Findings from the FACT 2020 Survey
By Patricia Tevington, PhD How have congregations adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic? Well, one way to answer this question is to ask them! And while we plan to do that systematically over the next five years, we do have some early insights into how churches have responded to Covid-19.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Clergy after a Year of Pandemic Adaptation: Innovation, Creativity, and Burn Out
By Allison Norton, PhD In August 2019, Hartford Seminary launched the Pastoral Innovation Network, a two-year cohort of 20 Mainline clergy across New England. The primary purpose was to gather the most innovative, early-career clergy in New England and provide them with the cross-denominat
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Anticipating a New Season: What Will a Post-Pandemic Faith Community Look Like?
By Scott Thumma, PhD It is absolutely clear that the global pandemic has accelerated the pre-existing patterns and long-term trends that existed prior to Covid-19. As a Seminary professor, I have for years been encouraging, even imploring my students to prepare to address these challenges. How