Churches Are Preparing For A Very Different Kind Of Easter In Lockdown
Like so many other professions, church leaders are turning to the internet to help them out in times of national crisis. BuzzFeed News spoke to leaders from different denominations and from across the UK about how they are adapting — and how the outbreak is testing their faith.SuppliedFitchet said:"For us as Christians, Easter is the most important day, bigger than Christmas.
"I had a Zoom call yesterday with 80 other church leaders from different denominations and different church sizes, from churches that were 20 or 30 members to churches that were over 1,000 and looking at how do we do church online — how do you do church in a new way, but also how do you make sure that those in your churches that don't have the internet and aren't plugged in, because churches full of lots of wonderful, wonderful faithful older people who aren't on the internet...
“We want, as churches, to be happy people all the time, this is a space where we can accept that things aren't always good, and how do we enable people to feel those emotions without feeling overwhelmed by them? It's tricky." While the pandemic has not tested his faith, he said “it does leave me with many, many questions." If he could ask God one question, he said, it would be:"What the bloody hell is going on?"
While Sundays would traditionally end with attendees moving from the church to her home to socialise and share a meal, this time members will be forced to experience the entire celebration from their homes and with their immediate families. During a time of social distancing, the church leader believed that it was critical for people who identified as Christians to offer a message of hope in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Easter, McCafferty said, is more important than any other event in the church calendar."It's central," he told BuzzFeed News."It's more important than Christmas. If there was no Easter, we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas — Easter is the high point of the year. The three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, leading into Easter Sunday are the epicentre of the church's life. Every reason that we have for hope is contained in those days.
One of the most challenging things, he said, is conducting funerals during this time — requiem masses in the church and wakes afterwards are not taking place, making it much harder for families saying goodbye to their loved ones. "There are a lot of people watching actually, quite a lot are getting in touch, they're finding comfort in the mass and in the prayers. So, basically that's all we can do.
However, despite the challenges of the current situation, McCafferty said that his Easter Sunday sermon will still preach a message of hope. The Croydon-based church with a largely west African congregation would traditionally anticipate welcoming new and old faces for its Easter service– a standout in its calendar, but this year, the church will be navigating technical challenges and hoping to create an atmosphere of worship from a distance.
He said: “The bible is full of stories of pandemics, wars, oppression and out of those periods we see the greatest examples of faith. For many, we hope it is a wake-up call to take their faith more seriously and a lesson of how to apply your faith in the toughest situations. She added: “On Sunday morning it’s going to be really different. We’d normally light the big Paschal candle, which is the candle that’s blessed and lit on Easter day from the first fire of Easter, and we as a church reaffirm our baptism vows, and that candle would then be lit at every service throughout the Easter period, and then it’s lit at every christening and funeral during the year.
“But this year, I think actually it’s going to be a bit more like the first Easter. The first Easter wasn’t met with a great big shout of joy that Jesus is Risen, it was actually a few people finding out the news in different places… it will make us reflect more on the first people to receive the resurrection news.”
Instead, the church said it plans on “having a good time as usual, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but this time, online.” As the current global pandemic continues to create divides through communities, the church leaders point to scripture as a reference for guidance. To address the challenge of meeting the spiritual needs of their large community, the pair have risen to the task by encouraging fellow leaders in the church to pursue individual relationships with members, “through online forums, and of course, regular phone calls and messages.”Easter is a big deal for Mulgrew too. “It is massive really,” he said, “It’s basically the reason why I’m a priest, we pin all our hopes on the resurrection week.
On Good Friday the service will be more — as is typical — sombre: “it will be very much around coronavirus,” he said, “I’m going to make links with regards to that, the sacrifice of Good Friday, great love is knowing that they’d lay down their life for anyone.” Mulgrew — a former comedian — is also working with Ten Ten theatre company to draw up resources for families to use at home, and has been recording video messages.
He said that he is also making sure to look out for older and more vulnerable members of the church community, who may also be feeling alone. Despite the setback, Akinfenwa shared how going digital has benefited the church and will play a role in delivering it’s Easter message.
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