Vale Christian Church is already decorated for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Pastor Paul Karsten said that his parishioners are ready for the pandemic to end. (Liliana Frankel/The Enterprise)
As Christmas approaches, local churches are taking measures to ensure that their celebratory gatherings will be Covid-safe, despite the pandemic-related fatigue and frustration expressed by parishioners whose main holiday wish is for all this to be over.
Since the state announced its first two-week pause on Nov. 11, church activities have been significantly restricted.
At present, places of worship can host only up to 25% of their capacity, or 100 people, inside, whichever is smaller. They are allowed to host 150 people outside. This has forced religious leaders to get creative as they plan for one of the biggest nights of the year.
“With all the restrictions, we are going to have three Masses,” said Father Cami Fernando of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Vale, highlighting a strategy that promises to space out parishioners who would otherwise crowd into one service.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Ontario is taking that strategy to the next level, with a total of five services – four on Christmas Eve, and one on Christmas morning.
Angelica Corona, director of religious education at the church, said that as parishioners arrive to the building, they are offered hand sanitizer. There’s also sanitizer at the pews, which parishioners wipe down before and after services. Every other pew is blocked off, and only one family, or two unrelated people, are allowed in any one pew.
“People are excused from attending Mass so that they can stay home comfortably and not feel like they’re at fault for not attending,” said Corona, explaining that the actual number of parishioners showing up for services has tended to be relatively low.
Still, the church has plans for what to do with overflow if there are too many people to fit in the sanctuary. Ushers will guide those who arrive after capacity is reached to other areas of the church, like the vestibule, choir lot, basement and parish hall, where they can participate in the service from a distance.
This strategy is similar to that employed by Butte Baptist Church in Ontario. The church doesn’t have as many interior spaces as Blessed Sacrament, but it does have a large parking lot on U.S. Highway 26, and those who don’t fit in the sanctuary or don’t want to come in for safety reasons are invited to sit in their cars and tune in to the service on low-frequency FM radio.
“We just recognized immediately that that was going to be one way that we could continue to reach out to people,” said head pastor Danny Morrison. “My head deacon had called the sheriff to make sure that that was something that was acceptable, and as soon as we got the okay we started.”
Morrison estimated that most Sundays, three to four car loads come and listen to services from the parking lot. Butte Baptist also streams its services on Youtube, provides weekly emails, and mails letters with an outline of the sermon for those who don’t get email.
For Christmas, Morrison said, there will be a “cut down” version of the usual morning program, and no evening worship.
At Vale Christian Church, senior pastor Paul Karsten said that while the main message of Christmas services, about Jesus “as the light of the world coming in,” would remain the same, he plans to incorporate in his sermon questions of “what’s going on in society, what’s going on in the political world, addressing the fact that there’s such a difference in viewpoints, and how do we come together in this world as a body of believers?”
“I would say that the biggest concern is when is this going to be over,” said Karsten, reflecting on the concerns his parishioners have brought to him. “There’s a desire to see this go away, to draw together to fellowship and be in relation. Us, as leaders in the church, our number one priority is to press people to follow the guidelines that have been given to us.”
“We don’t want to put anyone at risk, but we just want to be providing for people whatever they can to meet their spiritual needs and their emotional needs,” said Morrison. “But it’s a challenge.”
News tip? Contact reporter Liliana Frankel at [email protected] or 267-981-5577.
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