The impact of COVID-19: conversations with faith communities

Section Four - The future

At the time of the research, in early 2022, Scotland was preparing to loosen the restrictions that were introduced to respond to the Omicron variant of COVID 19, and a growing national concern about the cost of living. At a general population level in Scotland, there was a higher than pre-pandemic level of anxiety and loneliness, and far lower levels of social interaction than there were before the pandemic began. This suggested a level of uncertainty about the future across the Scottish population.

Faith communities involved in the research had a clear sense about the needs of their communities and plans for the future. A strong priority within that aspiration was to restore the physical and social interaction element of their community life, in safe and sustainable ways.

"I think people were previously thinking about enjoyment and satisfaction, and now are thinking about survival. I think it is a different mind-set." (Jewish participant)

These points touched on wider social themes and needs for managing the pandemic, understanding the detail and complex needs of people and groups in society, and planning for the future.

"You can view the faith community as an engine of social capital, and a physical presence, it is a presence in many communities - a building - which often may be the only accessible/affordable community facility. It is very fragile in places, but it is people who assemble, and whose religious outlook makes them support or serve others in their community. Even if government policy celebrates, recognises and doesn't forget about that, in the face of their increasing fragility." (Christian participant)

This also involved reference to investment in paying attention to people's circumstances and needs, and generating knowledge that is not narrow and inherently exclusive of groups and people in society.

"Surveys give you a wide picture, but they don't highlight diversity or complexity. The only way forward, in my opinion, there is so much diversity, you have to be inclusive but think about wider policies – you can't have thousands of specific policies. You can benefit from talking from a range of groups and getting some sense of the experiences. You can think about who are the relevant people who can inform the diverse experiences you are interested in." (Sikh participant)

"I think the long term effects are going to be really interesting. There is the other side, about what this has done to younger people, and what we have taught them about social norms, so until you are 10 or more, you learn about social norms. But for the last two years we have told people, 'don't shake hands', 'make sure you sanitise everywhere' – so there is research to be done on the net effect of that." (Christian participant)