On being well amid uncertainty

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Frederick J. Streets ‘75 M.Div. was senior pastor at the Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ in New Haven, leading the congregation through a time of unrelenting distress. 

 

As he attended to his congregation’s needs, he wondered how other clergy were coping with that prolonged period of grief and fear. Were they taking care of themselves as they looked after others? 

 

To find out, Streets conducted two surveys of clergy in the United Church of Christ in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. He subsequently conducted 11 focus groups with a subset of the respondents. 

 

The results of that work, published in the Journal of Pastoral Theology, showed that clergy who consistently engaged in self-care practices, such a meditation and exercise, experienced higher well-being and were less prone to burnout. Streets also found that older and more experienced clergy reported greater well-being and dedication to self-care than did younger and less experienced clergy.