The coronavirus has limited the ability of faith communities to gather. This has been the case for nearly one year. Many people speak of too much direct contact with their immediate families while experiencing isolation from others. Some who live alone speak of isolation despite online contact.

How do we have the viable emotional contact needed to function well as faith communities? How can we best fulfill our purposes as communities of faith during this time and beyond? We will look at these questions through concepts of Bowen theory.

In The Hidden Life of Trees, author Peter Wohlleben’s observations of the underground communications system that trees rely on for survival serves as a way to understand how human groups, such as congregations, function. Like the hidden life of trees, the connections in congregations are deep, with many relationships, associations, and loyalties operating under the surface. Like a grove, a congregation acts as an organism with developing and changing interconnections. Clergy leaders are often transplanted into the ongoing life of congregations. Usually there is a predecessor, a known and unknown history, alongside forces at work within and without. How is one to live and lead with these unseen influences at work?