A time to celebrate a message of hope in a time of anxiety

LACONIA — For the second year in a row, Christians prepare to mark the holiest time in their church’s calendar as they continue to grapple with the concerns and uncertainty that have been brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Given the trials and anxieties in this era of COVID-19, the message of Easter is all the more compelling and meaningful because Easter reminds people of the need to believe in something stronger than grief or fear. And that is hope.

“I think my main message is that we can celebrate resurrection even in challenging times,” said the Rev. Jim Shook, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Gilford.

That the past year has been extraordinary is undeniable. Consider the COVID statistics alone. Just prior to Easter last year the number of people in the U.S. who had been infected with COVID stood at 368,533, and the death toll was 11,008. As of Wednesday morning, just over 551,000 Americans had died from the virus, and the total number infected was approaching 30.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Faith has played a significant role in the lives of many during the COVID crisis, according to a recent poll.

While only about 18 percent of Easter-celebrating people plan to go to church this Easter, 47 percent of Americans say that religion has helped them get through the pandemic, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by WalletHub.

It is in the midst of this shocking period of time that many Easter-believing people come together to pray and celebrate.

For many Christian faith communities the special celebrations begin this evening with the celebration of Holy — or Maundy — Thursday commemorating the Last Supper. The special services continue in some churches with the observance of Good Friday and then Easter Vigil after sunset on Saturday. In many traditions those three services contain distinct rituals which are performed at no other time.

Easter last year occurred just one month after COVID hit the state. Schools, shops and many businesses were closed, and gatherings of more than 10 people prohibited. That meant churches had to switch to online services. Since then some churches, however, have resumed in-person services, while still providing an online option for their congregation.

“At least this year we’ll be back in church,” said the Very Rev. Marc Drouin, pastor of St. Andre Bessette Parish in Laconia and St. Joseph Parish in Belmont, noting that he and his fellow priests will have a congregation in front of them as they conduct the upcoming services.

Catholic churches throughout the state have been holding in-person Masses for 10 months, but with special COVID precautions, including social distancing, which considerably reduces the number of people who can be in the church. For example, the capacity of Sacred Heart Church in Laconia is presently limited to 80 to 90 people, Drouin said, far below its rated capacity of 600.

Others churches in the area are continuing to stick to online services only.

At the Laconia Congregational Church, the Rev. Neal Wilson will lead a live-streamed Holy Thursday/Good Friday service tonight in addition to a service on Easter Sunday. Tonight’s service will include a virtual Communion with Wilson saying a prayer of blessing for the bread and wine which worshippers have set aside at home and which they will then consume at the appropriate time during the service.

Because of the challenges so many in his congregation have been facing, Wilson said he is trying to focus on bringing a message of reassurance.

“I think of my message as being a sort of comfort food,” he said.

Along that same line, he said he and the church’s music director have purposely chosen music that is familiar.

But there are also instances where people will have their first opportunity to worship in-person since COVID began.

Both the United Methodist Church in Gilford and the Weirs Beach Methodist Church will be co-hosting a sunrise service on the Boardwalk in Weirs Beach on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. Worshippers will be required to wear masks, “and there probably won’t be any singing,” Mark Lamprey, pastor at the Weirs church said.

Last year’s sunrise service was canceled because of the pandemic.

“”We are all trying to resurrect after this COVID,” Lamprey said. “COVID has really been playing heck with a lot of things.”

Members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Meredith will have their first chance to worship in-person in more than a year on Saturday when the Easter Vigil liturgy will be celebrated outside in the church’s parking lot, starting at 8 p.m.

The service will include the lighting of the Easter Fire and Paschal Candle followed by readings from the Old Testament which tell of God’s redemptive activity in human history.

“If we are going to try something new, Easter is the perfect time to try it,” the Rev. Robin Thomas Soller, the church’s rector, said of the decision to use the service at which the message of Easter is first solemnly celebrated as the first opportunity for parishioners to assemble and worship in nearly 11 months.

Dick Aucoin, pastor of the Lakes Region Vineyard Church in Laconia, said as the country and the world begin to emerge from strictures of COVID this Easter will be different from those before.

“It’s an opportunity to come together and understand the power of the Resurrection in our lives,” he said. “But this year I think Easter will not be so much about the day, but about the people who are involved in the day.”

Soller, like other area members of the clergy, stressed that though these times may be unprecedented, the message of Easter is timeless.

“The good news is that God is with us in the midst of everything. There’s always new life,” she said.