What is a “liminal space”? And what does it mean for churches in a world of online worship, global shifts and COVID-19? Identifying this was the central theme throughout the Sept. 19 opening worship of the United Church of Christ’s virtual summit, “The Space Between: The Emerging Church in a Post-Pandemic World.” The Rev. Shernell Edney Stilley, summit chaplain and associate conference minister for the UCC New York Conference, led the half-hour, prerecorded service.
“Some of you may be asking yourself, ‘What is the liminal space?’” Edney Stilley said in her introduction. “Quite frankly, it means something different for everyone.”
The UCC originally planned to hold the summit as a hybrid event, with in-person gathering space in St. Louis. Yet the ongoing realities of the COVID-19 pandemic caused UCC leaders to pivot quickly to a fully online event — a reflection of the many shifts that have happened during the past two-and-a-half-years.
Since March 2020, churches everywhere have dealt with the pandemic in different ways. Churchgoers have worshiped from couches and cars. They’ve tuned in for church via livestream or prerecorded video, on Facebook and YouTube. And they’ve participated in drive-through communion, outdoor Bible studies and Zoom-enabled choirs.
Now, church leaders are examining what church looks like as the world tries to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 150 participants gathered on Zoom during the summit’s first day, coming from churches, Conferences and communities across the country. Beginning with worship, they are digging into deep questions about the church’s history, present and future.
Salem’s senior pastor, the Rev. Lawrence T. Richardson, described the in-betweenness of this moment in history: “The liminal space is a ‘threshold’ space,” he said. “It’s the space between ‘not now’ and ‘not yet.’ It’s the space where things aren’t familiar, and things are changing. And yet we don’t know where exactly things are headed.”
The Rev. J.J. Flag, pastor of Emmanuel Congregational Church in Watertown, N.Y., echoed this paradox. “I would say, in theological terms, liminal space would probably be something that we would define as the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet,’” Flag said. “The fact that God is love and has shared God’s love with us, and yet the world does not reflect that all-consuming, all-encompassing, wide-reaching love, is evidence of ‘already’ and ‘not yet.’”
Read more about the summit at UCC.org.