As the world begins to emerge from the most recent surge of the Covid-19 pandemic, how do we return to normal? And what should normal mean? The feeling that we are ready for the return to normal is as much a product of exhaustion as of progress. While there is much to be celebrated, especially Read more
The speed and scale of the shift to remote online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has really tested students’ adaptability. Our study of more than 1,500 students at nine Australian high schools during 2020 found strong links between their level of adaptability and how they fared with online learning. Students with higher adaptability were more Read more
I spent the early months of the coronavirus pandemic feeling desperately claustrophobic. Quarantined in a one-bedroom apartment in New York, I would sometimes imagine my fire escape was a creaky porch in the woods somewhere as I sat outside in the early evenings, listening to my neighbours’ cheer and bang pots for the essential workers Read more
In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, Reverend Gordon Taylor is poised to relaunch an initiative, that he began in 2017, to talk over a cuppa in Zuma, a Nelson cafe. For many people unable to work over lockdown, “I think that was a good time to reassess our values.” “My expectation is – linked Read more
As a stir-crazy nation slowly emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, debates about what our “new normal” will be like are intensifying. Will the shock of the lockdown bring a transformative moment of social solidarity? Or tear us apart in tribal strife? Will there be a baby boom or baby bust? More marriages or more divorces? Read more
As Catholic churches throughout New Zealand prepare to welcome people back to Sunday Mass church ministers are warning things are not the same. Catholic churches used to have a common look and feel, but post-COVID-19, the new normal will likely be less familiar, it may even seem a little strange, warns Wellington priest, Pete Roe. Read more
In a pastoral statement, the New Zealand Catholic bishops have written to Catholics saying they are pleased that Mass can resume, but warn the experience may not be as familiar as it once was. They say the new normal is means the Church’s liturgy remains restricted to protect the vulnerable and elderly. The statement, creatively Read more
During two months of social isolation, the work of American business has migrated, ready or not, into the home. If pajamas have become the new workplace attire and the sofa has been transformed into the new desktop, where does that leave a U.S. Catholic Church yearning to stay connected with its parishioners through Zoom liturgies Read more
It is seriously funny that animals and birds roam free while we humans sit in cages. What is the Earth telling us? I haven’t the faintest idea. But I do sense the whisper of the Divine Presence with this pandemic. Some of us are being called back home to the love from which we came. Read more