ABSTRACT
The British Academy’s 2021 independently commissioned report states that the COVID-19 pandemic ‘is not just a health crisis that may one day end, but a social, economic and cultural crisis that will last much longer.’ The report warns that we are living into the ‘COVID decade.’ Suggested topics may include pastoral theological reflections on Anti-Asian Racism, Xenophobia, equity implications of the pandemic, the meaning of suffering, the role of religious communities in response to the pandemic, the impact of the pandemic on religion and religious practices, and other topics you deem appropriate to this call. Since WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the number of COVID-19-related deaths worldwide, as of August 27, 2021, reached more than 4.4 million with more than 200 million confirmed cases. In the case of the US, preceding the COVID-19 pandemic was the ongoing legacy of slavery whereby inequity and oppression are maintained by systemic racism.
