Social Distance, Digital Congregation: British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19

仪式理论家和英国政府都认为，宗教仪式确实起作用，是必不可少的社会工作。英国政府已将神职人员视为新冠肺炎疫情期间的关键工作者。葬礼、婚礼、出生仪式和节日纪念活动对人们的心理健康和社区感至关重要，特别是考虑到疫情造成的不安感。但是神职人员完成这项重要工作的关键手段--因此，仪式专家被迫即兴发挥，将仪式转移到网上，这对大多数主流神职人员来说几乎是未知的。因为这些即兴的创新是由忙碌的神职人员快速完成的，他们之间几乎没有协调，他们没有被系统或详细地收集或研究。因此，这些创新的全面影响没有得到充分考虑，也没有以在疫情结束后很长一段时间内有益于各种信仰的英国人福祉的方式加以发展。它将与来自英国各地的各种信仰的宗教专业人士合作，捕捉，分析，培育和发展这些火锻造的创新及其促进的可能性，使用从数字宗教，在线宗教和表现研究中得出的数字主导方法，包括参与行动研究的主题。这些调查结果将被广泛和容易地分享，以使外地受益。他们还将在学术上为数字文化时代不断变化的宗教和仪式实践的持续讨论做出贡献。

Religious rituals do work, essential social work, according to both ritual theorists and the UK government, which has recognized clergy as key workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funerals, weddings, birth rituals, and holiday observances are vital to people's psychological wellbeing and sense of community, especially given the sense of unease created by the pandemic. But the key means by which clergy do this vital work-live communal ritual-is not possible during lockdown conditions. And so ritual specialists have been forced to improvise means of moving rituals online, something which is virtually unknown to most mainstream clergy. Because these improvised innovations are being done quickly by busy practicing clergy with little co-ordination between them, they are not being collected or studied in a systematic or detailed way. The full implications of these innovations are thus not being adequately considered or developed in ways that could be beneficial for the wellbeing of Britons of all faiths long after the pandemic is over.This project will fill that gap. It will work with religious professionals of a range of faiths from across Britain to capture, analyse, nurture and develop these fire-forged innovations and the possibilities they facilitate, using digitally-led methods drawn from digital religion, online religion and performance studies, including involving subjects in action research. These findings will be shared broadly and accessibly for the benefit of the field. They will also contribute academically to ongoing discussions of the changing practices of religion and ritual in the era of digital culture.