In a May 2023 advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called attention to the “public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection in the U.S. today.”
In his plan to address this crisis, he listed faith groups as key players in the solution: “Religious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors.”
While the directive was meant more generally, faith leaders and mental health experts say religious traditions and faith communities can play a key role in helping people get through the winter holidays, when rates of depression and anxiety are proven to increase.
From food drives to special services, like “lessons and carols,” to extra events and gatherings that often include a shared meal, many houses of worship are bustling with activity and opportunities to engage with community in December.
Showing up
“During the holidays, we are practicing relational spirituality and engaging in our awakened brain,” said Lisa Miller, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “We are actually showing up for one another to be loving, to be holding, to be guiding and never leave anyone alone.”
For many, the winter holidays are a time of grief, loss or perhaps heightened levels of depression and anxiety. A poll by the American Psychological Association found 41% of adults in the United States say their stress increases during the holidays.
Additionally, the National Alliance on Mental Illness found 64% of people living with a mental illness reported their conditions worsen around the holidays.
Miller, who founded the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, described the winter holiday season as the “Sabbath of the year” and said spirituality is a “clear antidote” to the unprecedented rise in so-called diseases of despair — alcoholism, drug use and suicide — in the United States.
This is the time when all those activities houses of worship engage in can really shine, Miller says: creating space for people to come share their feelings, singing together, participating in a prayer and inviting people to give back to their community through charity.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, both religion and spirituality can have a positive impact on mental health, though often in different ways.
In general, religion gives people something to believe in, provides a sense of structure and typically connects people with similar beliefs. Meanwhile, the group describes spirituality as a sense of connection to something bigger, aiding in self-reflection and exploration of how one fits into the rest of the world.
While the research has been mixed on the connection between religiosity and overall health, a 2019 Pew Research Study found more than one-third of “actively religious” adults say they are “very happy” compared to a quarter of religiously inactive and unaffiliated Americans.
Sarah Lund, the minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice at the United Church of Christ, agreed faith communities are considered some of the key places to improve the mental health of Americans.
Gift of connection
“We don’t realize what a gift it is to be connected to each other and to have weekly gatherings where we share space, share community, break bread together, have friendships and build relationships through prayer, through Bible study and through worship,” Lund said.
And for people struggling with grief, disability or mental health during the holidays, Lund said support from a community, like a congregation, can help. She noted that some churches offer “Blue Christmas” services — opportunities to honor people who have lost loved ones and are experiencing grief — and expressed hope that congregations might consider ways to incorporate such acknowledgements all year.
Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Robinson held its first “Blue Christmas” service this year, called “A Service of Peace: Reflecting on Loss in a Season of Hopeful Anticipation.”
Meadowbrook executive pastor David Cozart explained the pastoral team wrestled for some time with knowing there was a need to offer such a service, but not knowing exactly “how to do it in a way that created an intentional pause, without forcing people to relive some of their most painful moments.”
They determined last year they were going to make sure it was accomplished this year, he said. Those who came to the intimate service expressed gratitude, noting while they didn’t know what to expect, they also didn’t know how much they needed it.
Cozart said he hopes it’s a service the church continues to offer every Christmas.
First Baptist Church Allen has held similar services in past years, but because they are in an interim season, only offered the annual GriefShare: Surviving the Holidays event this year. The event offered video presentations from grief experts and discussion — as a typical grief group session would — but was open to anyone in the church or community dealing with loss, Jimmy Smith, generations pastor at the church, explained.
For some in attendance, it would be their first holiday without the person whose loss brought them to the event. Others were more seasoned in grief, but they all were able to share their struggles and personal grief journey through the holidays.
Smith described it as “a beautiful and sacred time, as we get to hear from one another, encourage one another and support one another.
“Every participant was given a workbook that had devotionals and helps for the holidays and a cross ornament they could put on their tree as a way to remember and honor their loved one,” Smith explained.
Continuing the work
“After the holidays is when people feel that kind of letdown,” Lund said. “As people of faith, there’s an opportunity to continue the intentional work about inclusion and supporting people’s mental health and accommodating the needs of people who have disabilities.”
“A strong spiritual life is more protective against addiction, more protective against depression, more protective even against suicide than anything else known to the social or medical sciences,” Miller said.
“When we look at hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, we see that the magnitude of the protective benefits of spiritual life are pointing to a way forward for our country.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Audrey Thibert and originally published by Religion News Service.