Oral history interview with Shannon MacVean-Brown

Oral history interview with Shannon MacVean-Brown

Bishop Shannon MacVean-Brown discusses her work at the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, she conveys how she needed to quickly adapt to lead her parishes in continuing their ministry virtually. She explains how she communicated with other faith leaders, read to learn about COVID-19 and disease transmission, and created policies and procedures to share online. She shares how the morning and evening prayers she instituted via Zoom have continued and grown into a recognized congregation, the Green Mountain Online Abbey. She emphasizes the importance of keeping people safe and healthy and especially prioritizing vulnerable populations such as the essential workers who "had no choice but to be in-person" during the pandemic. She also talks about inequities in the vaccine rollout and expresses that she did not agree with how vaccinations were distributed to people of color. She briefly shares some more personal aspects of her experiences during the pandemic, including how her mother contracted COVID after visiting a dying friend despite advice not to go out in public.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown graduated with a Master of Divinity from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 2004. She was ordained deacon in 2004 and priest in 2005 in the Diocese of Michigan. She was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont on 18 May 2019 and was ordained as the 11th Bishop of Vermont on 28 September 2019. She received her Doctor of Ministry from Ecumenical Theological Seminary.

Sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-251676-OMS-22.

2024-06-10

Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project

AudioFileCOVID-040

MP3

WAV

Audio file

Permission to publish material from the Collecting COVID-19: A Vermont Story Project may be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Bosek, Marcia Sue DeWolf

MacVean-Brown, Shannon

1 hr., 2 min., 30 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4215