New Zealand Religious Community Responses to COVID-19 While Under Level 4 Lockdown

Theis Oxholm, Catherine Rivera, Kearly Schirrman, William James Hoverd*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Social scientific research into the impact of COVID-19 on religious communities is emergent. This research combines interview data (n = 12) collected, as New Zealand moved into Level 3—Restrict and then Level 4—Lockdown, with Facebook and online news media analysis to understand how religious leaders and their communities responded to COVID-19. Our data found four challenges: (1) The requirement to reassess worship practices, (2) the need to mitigate any potential for community transmission, (3) significant difficulties related to social distancing for communal religious practices, and lastly, (4) welfare and pastoral concerns for congregations and others in need.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Religion and Health
Volume60
Pages (from-to)16-33
Number of pages18
ISSN0022-4197
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Lockdown
  • New Zealand
  • Religion
  • Social distancing

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