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.

“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 U.S. say their stress increases during the holidays, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness found that 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 that more than one-third of “actively religious” adults say they are “very happy” compared to a quarter of religiously inactive and unaffiliated Americans.

The Rev. Sarah Lund, the minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice at the United Church of Christ, echoed that faith communities are considered some of the key places to improve the mental health of Americans.

“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.

“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.”

Ginger Morgan, too, sees that the winter holidays can be difficult for some of the students she works with at Pres House, a Presbyterian church on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. But she also noted the role the holidays can play in providing students — both religious and not religious — time for relaxation after finals season.

For example, Morgan, who is the director of candid and community initiatives at Pres House, also interacts with international students who live at Pres House Apartments — open to all students, not just churchgoers. While these students don’t typically observe the Christian holidays, they still use the time to see friends, share good food and take a break to rest.

“Those are themes of — in the Christian tradition — the Sabbath,” Morgan said, echoing Miller of Columbia.

Morgan added that students use the time before they go home for Christmas break for various types of communal activities — whether through participation in the Pres House’s Christmas choir or decorating cookies with the congregation.

“Students go above and beyond what they’re already doing for school,” Morgan said. “They like doing Christmas cookie decoration because it’s joyful and fun and it brings light and lightness. There’s a lot about holidays that brings joy even when students are facing an exhausting period of time right at the end of the semester.”

Miller said this sort of “direct, loving, transcendent relationship” — whether that’s through religion or spirituality — can have enormous protective benefits.

“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.”

Audrey Thibert is a journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and contributor to Religion News Service.