For Easter and Holy Week: New ways of worship, but same message

LACONIA — Easter, which occurs this Sunday, is the most important Christian feast and the one celebrated with the greatest joy. But with the solemnity occurring while the Lakes Region, like the rest of the nation is in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic, some congregations have wondered whether to delay the celebration until better times return. The Rev. Jennifer Hitt, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, is aware of such thinking, but she’s having no part of it.

“Easter — I say bring it on!” Hitt exclaimed. “Easter shows up whether you’re ready or not. You can’t stop resurrection,” she continued. “You can’t stop new life.”

Hitt, like the leaders of other local churches, is working with the members of her congregation to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, at a daunting time in the country's struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.

As of midday Tuesday the virus had infected more than 368,533 in the U.S. and killed more than 11,008, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Efforts to celebrate a feast which is typically the best-attended Sunday service of the year – at a time when gatherings larger than 10 people are prohibited – has required adaptability and creativity.

Hitt is having members of her congregation make butterflies — a symbol of resurrection — using whatever material they have at home. The members will then send a picture of their butterfly to the church’s worship technology coordinator, who will assemble the photographs to be used during Good Shepherd’s online service on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

In another example of using technology to create a virtual service, this past Sunday — Palm Sunday — a video of a family in the parish marching around their yard waving branches substituted for the traditional procession in the church, in which members of the congregation would march up and down the aisles holding palm fronds.

In some cases the online service is virtually identical to what would take place in the church if the congregation was present. And while some churches are continuing with all the usual parts of the service, others – because of tradition, theology, or practical reality – are eliminating certain ceremonies or rituals.

Those watching the Holy (Maundy) Thursday service from the Laconia Congregational Church at 6:30 p.m. will be invited to take part in a virtual Communion in which the Rev. Neil Wilson, the church’s senior pastor, will say a prayer of blessing over bread and wine. Those watching online will then eat a piece of bread and take a sip of wine at home.

But in other churches, such as Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran, virtual communion is not allowed and so members of those congregations — except in end-of-life situations — are unable to receive Communion until the time when all social distancing restrictions are lifted.

The Very Rev. Marc Drouin, pastor of St. Andre Bessette Parish in Laconia and St. Joseph Parish in Belmont, is inviting those watching his online Masses to join him in saying a prayer of spiritual Communion — a way for people to access the spiritual benefit of the Eucharist if they are unable to physically receive it. It was a practice the Catholic Church used in centuries past during plagues.

On Holy Thursday, churches with more ritualized forms of worship include the ceremony of the Washing of the Feet in which the priest or minister washes the feet of selected members of the congregation to commemorate how Jesus, in a sign of humility and service, washed the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper.

The feet-washing will be eliminated from the Holy Thursday liturgy that Drouin will celebrate, while Hitt will invite those watching her online service to wash the feet of family members at home.

The Easter Vigil liturgy which Drouin will celebrate on Saturday at 7 p.m. will not open as usual with the lighting of the Easter fire — a symbol of light in the darkness.

Christian worship services during this week are traditionally rich in symbolism and are highly visual — washing of feet, burning fire, flickering candlelight illuminating darkened churches, sprinkling the congregation with water, and stripping the linen cloths off the altar and removing all ornamental features from the area where the service is performed. Hitt called Holy Week and Easter services “radically kinesthetic.”

Some of those symbolic rites will not be performed this year, and others won’t have the same dramatic effect with congregations dispersed.

But faith leaders said that, despite the limitations imposed by social distancing, the message of Easter — as well as the feast days leading up to it — resonates with believers in a powerful way during the pandemic.

“The message of the Resurrection is life is changed, not ended, and life has certainly changed now,” Drouin said.

As Hitt sees it, “We are an Easter people living in a Good Friday world,” reflecting that spiritual messages are valid regardless of the individual believer’s feelings at a given moment. “Life is stronger than death even in the midst of pain, and God is with us,“ she stressed.

Hitt and her colleagues have found that the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic have forced them to see the potential of social media in spreading religious messages and keeping believers connected.

“We have had triple the number of people joining us online than in person,” said the Rev. Dick Aucoin, pastor of the Lakes Region Vineyard Church in Lakeport.

He said about 120 people would typically attend Sunday services, but this past Sunday 485 people watched the service as it was live streamed. With gatherings limited to no more than 10, Aucoin said he and six other people led the service from the church while worshippers took part remotely.

“This crisis,” said Hitt, “has caused us to pivot into an area of technology many congregations were not savvy about.”

One outgrowth of the shift to technology-based worship has led to more frequent prayer services.

At the Laconia Congregational Church, the regular Sunday service is now being supplemented with a short, daily devotional service at 9:30 a.m. Similarly, Trinity Episcopal Church in Meredith has at least one online service every day, be it Morning Prayer, Compline in the evening, or Stations of the Cross — a service based on a series of 14 images depicting Jesus on the day of his Crucifixion.

In addition to more formal services, clergy are using online technology in other ways. Aucoin is using Zoom teleconferencing for small group gatherings, and Facetime for counseling or praying with individual congregants.

And the technology has allowed congregations to reach out way beyond the local area. Good Shepherd’s services have been attended by someone in Michigan, Trinity’s by a summertime member who is now in Florida where he spends the winter, and a person in Cambodia has been watching Lakes Region Vineyard’s live-streamed service.

All pastors say the experience of using online services and outreach will likely result in technology continuing to be used in some form, even after the restrictions on large gatherings are lifted.

Drouin, Hitt, and Wilson believe technology will continue to be part of their respective church’s ministry, but are unsure at this time the ways in which it will be employed.

For Aucoin, who has seen participation in his services triple, the continued use of technology is a no-brainer. “I’ve said to my people, ‘When this is all over would you want to abandon these 200 or 300 (new online worshippers)?’ And of course, their answer is, ‘No.’”