I am well into month number four at Life Together, and I have never “been to a day of work at the office!” I am sure so many of you can relate. Onboarding remotely has been similar to everything else in life over the past year- we do so on Zoom. Occasionally, we have also met with masks and outside. In all cases, I don’t feel that I have lost too much from onboarding this way. After all, what choice do we have? All feelings aside about the pandemic, I am very grateful to be a part of the Life Together Community. Had I not been a Prayer Partner before, nor met the fellows in 3-D during a social-distance, Apple Picking adventure, I think my role with Life Together and the context of the community would have been hard to decipher remotely. Thankfully, I was already in the groove of meeting with fellows on Zoom on Friday mornings, and now I just have a few more Zoom meetings a week with fellows. :)
I can’t really imagine what my role will look like once we are able to work together in person, but I hope that as we move closer to that date, I will be able to picture it a little better. I know that there have been some benefits to working remotely such as a commute that is only a few steps away from the breakfast table, and the ability to work from anywhere. The huge extroverted part of me longs to see many people in real life, and to be together to worship, break bread, pray, and play in 3-D. I also think that recruitment efforts would also be a little easier if we had the ability to meet people face-to-face. However, for now, just like with all other parts of life, Zoom meetings are far better than just a phone meeting, and Zoom meetings are the best they can be at a distance. There is no way that I would have been able to onboard like this even five years ago, so I am extremely grateful that we have the capacity to do so in this way in these pandemic times.
When I have been introducing people to Life Together remotely, I am most proud of our commitment to establishing a queer, trans, and non-binary affirming community that is dedicated to dismantling white supremacy. I admire our passion for justice and to the cultivation of our contemplative, communal, and prophetic core practices.
May we soon meet together in 3-D, and may we soon be free to let go of our fear of accidentally infecting one another when we gather. I am looking forward to meeting the extended Life Together family and community, and I am grateful for all the virtual meetings I have had thus far. Peace, good health, and hope to all of you!
Jocelyn E. Collen (she/her/hers), M.Div., is the Life Together Associate Director for Training & Recruitment. She earned her Master of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and her B.A. from Fairfield University. After graduating from Fairfield, Jocelyn served for a year at a Safe House in Syracuse, N.Y., with FrancisCorps. For more thoughts from Jocelyn, please stop by here.