Pastoring in a Pandemic: Sources and Types of Social Support Used by United Methodist Clergy in the Early Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic
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2023-12-01
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COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. In this article, we draw on 50 in-depth interviews conducted with United Methodist clergy in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020–January 2021) to examine the sources and types of social support pastors relied on during this time. We found that most clergy reported drawing from a diverse eco-system of social supports and turned to different sources of support—for example, other clergy, local church members, and denominational leaders—for different types of support—for example, informational, instrumental, and/or emotional. This study extends existing research on clergy well-being by examining whether the social support used by clergy during the COVID-19 map onto those identified in previous research and by specifying the types of support that were most salient. In the discussion, we consider the broader implications of our findings for clergy well-being beyond the pandemic period.
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Johnston, EF, J Headley and DE Eagle (2023). Pastoring in a Pandemic: Sources and Types of Social Support Used by United Methodist Clergy in the Early Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 51(4). pp. 459–476. 10.1177/00916471231182737 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/32068.
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Erin Johnston
David E Eagle
I am an Assistant Research Professor the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research and the Duke Global Health Institute. I am an expert on the health of religious clergy, the changing shape of churches in North American society, and the implications of these trends for the professional training of ministers.
More recently, my research has begun to branch out internationally. I am doing research on clergy in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and studying the mental health of sexual and gender minorities around the world.
Methodologically, I am skilled in the collection and analysis of survey data, including longitudinal and social network data.
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