Catching Up With Consul General: New York Finnish Lutheran Congregation Pastor Tiina Talvitie's Christmas Message
As the year draws to a close, the Consul General of Finland in New York, Mika Koskinen, asked pastor Tiina Talvitie to reflect on the pandemic's effect on the church, and the meaning of spiritual community in exceptional times.
Talvitie has been the pastor of the New York Finnish Lutheran Congregation since April 2009. Born and raised in Ostrobothnia in northwestern Finland, she is the ninth permanent pastor of the church, founded in 1903.
Mika Koskinen: How has the pandemic affected the Finnish Lutheran Congregation in New York?
Tiina Talvitie: All our in-person group activities were on hold for over a year. Only slowly have we been able to start some of the activities. First came in-person Sunday services, followed by the weekly family group gatherings and knitting group, and in January, we hope to restart with children's playgroups.
The pandemic is far from over, and we're emerging slowly, and everything is still quite fragile; we might need to cut back on what we have already been able to restart. Families have moved out from the cities or even from the U.S.; many elderly still don't want to venture into public transport, which they would need to do if they wish to participate in in-person activities. We don't know how things will look for us in a year from now. Of course, the pandemic has also had an adverse effect on our financial situation.
MK: During difficult times, people tend to feel more drawn to a spiritual community. Has this occurred during the pandemic?
TT: This is a difficult question. We've had a fair number of people who have followed our meditations and Sunday service videos, more than we would have had in in-person services. In that light, I could say that people have been drawn more to a spiritual community, but what is that community?
For me, community is always human interaction which is essentially lacking when watching a video of a service. Of course, human interaction can also happen digitally; we've had zoom coffee hours on Sunday afternoons after the video service. This allowed us to meet and chat with each other and share our common and, at the same time, very personal experience of the pandemic.
MK: What would be a silver lining of the pandemic?
TT: With the pandemic, the church doors were closed, and no in-person gatherings were possible, but that didn't mean that we wouldn't have our Sunday services, on the contrary. Quickly we started to produce video meditations and video Sunday services.
Our congregation in the U.S. is very dispersed, and as I'm able to be only in one place at a time—I thank God for that limit—we can't have services in all places every Sunday. Video services every Sunday made it possible for anyone who could join us digitally to join, no matter where they were: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, DC area, even Florida, and elsewhere. So we were able to reach more people than "normally."
On another level, I think we have learned to appreciate the presence of other beings more, and we've learned to communicate with each other in new ways. Things, people, and different groups that perhaps were not visible before have become more so, and I think we have become more aware of our surroundings. Amid everything stressful and chaotic, with all the new things to learn, we have also learned to step on the break and think about our priorities again.
MK: What have been your coping mechanisms during these challenging times?
TT: I've been blessed by being able to go out in nature from the very beginning of the pandemic. I was not confined inside four walls. I also tried to bring this to others by recording the meditation videos outside in different places.
MK: How has Finnish Lutheran Church been able to assist Finns/others in need during the pandemic?
Though we had to close our doors and church spaces, we didn't need to turn off our phones or emails. We learned to use new digital means of communication on the go.
The fact that the family group gatherings and children's playgroup continued digitally using a Zoom-like platform through spring 2020 was very important to families. I was amazed by how well children participated in gatherings in that format.
We helped some members who didn't have access to the internet to book their vaccination appointments and then helped them to get there.
As more personal contact has become possible, so have the more "traditional" ways of meeting and helping people.
MK: What has been your most memorable pandemic-related encounter?
TT: I think it was from a year ago when we prepared small Christmas baskets for some of our most isolated congregation members. Then we drove over twelve hours in New York and New Jersey to deliver those baskets. Oh, what a treat it was to see the familiar faces that we hadn't seen for almost ten months and to be able to change a few words even if it was just at the crack of a door taking all the precautions not to carry the virus to anyone.
MK: What would be your Christmas message to local Finns?
TT: We all know the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, taking shelter in the stable because there was no room in the inn, baby Jesus born of Mary placed in a manger. There, in a manger, sleeps our Redeemer surrounded by Joseph and Mary, by the animals in the same shelter and shepherds who arrive running after seeing the angels in the night sky.
Where do you take your place in this scene? Right by the manger, a little farther away or all the way back in the dark corner of the stable where no one can see you? It doesn't matter where you are; it matters where your heart is. Is your heart an inn where there is no room, or is it a manger in which the baby is carefully put to sleep?
I wish everyone a Christmas season filled with light, joy, peace, and love!
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