JCM Conference 2021
How does the time of isolation change our ideas about religious community?

The pandemic, regardless of whether one counts it as the most relevant crisis of the time or criticises the measures taken to fight it as exaggerated, is having an impact on our everyday life everywhere. In the last months the isolation has led to a changed sense of time, to new types of social contacts and especially for people of faith, to a rethinking in areas of worship, spiritual welfare and coping with contingency. The pandemic is now testing the foundation of every Abrahamic religion, the community. Times of crisis have always reinforced search for meaning. Will the problem of isolation lead in the long term to a reversal of individualisation and will the sense of community regain a higher status in society?

How do our faith institutions respond to feelings of loneliness and alienation? Can faith and religiosity in psychological terms relieve the burden at all, and if so, how? Streaming events by religious communities have drawn greater attendance than local in-person worship. But does it touch people as deeply as an in-person real-life services that allows personal encounter and involvement and do these satisfy religious needs or are they just another means against boredom next to Youtube, Netflix and Co.?

Due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference took place online with participants from across Europe, Israel and Palestine, Tanzania and Indonesia. Together we explored how this crisis challenged and will continue to challenge life and works of our religious communities and how we can sustain ourselves and our dialogue. What will we need to leave behind and what can we learn from and with one another?

For those who missed the conference, you may wish to watch the lectures from the faith groups available on our YouTube channel.