Keeping the faith in this time of global pandemic
As people stay away from church, leaders ‘get church to the people’ via streaming
Somehow, from Friday Shabbat in slippers to Sunday Mass on Facebook, people found communion.
Across the Bay Area and around the world, worshippers of all denominations whose temples, churches and mosques had closed their doors for the first time ever to help prevent the spread of coronavirus had no choice but to put ritual aside and pray at home.
And many did so in front of their laptop computers, watching their religious leaders live-stream their services.
“When our rabbi said, ‘Shabbat Shalom everybody,’ I felt I was there,” said Deanne Ball, a member of Temple Emanu-El in San Jose, who did, indeed, wear her slippers as she watched the online service with her husband from their family room couch. “I could sing as loud as I wanted — and pause it.”
The rapid global spread of the deadly coronavirus, which has infected at least 335 Californians and killed six statewide, has created a surreal form of spirituality and tested the faithful.
Bar mitzvahs have been postponed, weddings and baptisms restricted to family only, and other rites of passage have been delayed indefinitely. The Vatican is barring the public from Holy Week celebrations, which draw tens of thousands of people to St. Peter’s Square and the Roman Colosseum.
But it is the humble weekly services where people find comfort and strength in togetherness that were upended over the weekend, throwing priests and pastors, rabbis and imams into televangelist territory.
Many felt a bit awkward at first.
“I had to trust that there are people on the other side of the camera,” said the Rev. Rebecca Lyman of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, who stood before her dark, empty church
Sunday morning while organist James Welch played Mendelssohn and her sermon was live-streamed. “At first it felt empty. It’s the gathering of the people that’s the point.”
Nonetheless, she soldiered on. In front of a Logitech web camera and USB microphone hooked up to a MacBook Pro, she urged her congregants to “check on your neighbor. Be a witness to hope in spite of fear. Be an agent of grace, not blame. Aid the vulnerable and the forgotten.”
Mary Beth Train of Palo Alto was watching. She’s 81 and in the demographic at highest risk for infection. She would have stayed home whether or not St. Mark’s was open, she said, and appreciated the YouTube version of her Morning Prayer.
“I put on my headphones and dialed in,” the octogenarian said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it felt quite comforting.”
In the Diocese of San Jose in the heart of Santa Clara County, one of four major coronavirus outbreak zones across the country, Bishop Oscar Cantu delivered 10 a.m. Mass via Facebook Live, followed by priests saying Mass in Spanish and
Vietnamese.
Catholic churches in Oakland and San Francisco remained open, although Catholics had been given “special dispensation” for not attending. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in San Francisco said that “it could be considered an act of charity toward others to refrain from church attendance” especially for those who might have been exposed to the virus in some way.
In a message, Cordileone called on Catholics to show “heroic virtue” like those who stayed behind in times of plague in Europe or AIDS in San Francisco to render care to the sick.
At All Saints Catholic Church in Hayward on Sunday, a century-old house of worship that usually draws a standing-room-only crowd, only 150 souls filled a portion of the church. The smell of hand sanitizer replaced incense and polite nods and smiles replaced handshakes and the “kiss of peace.” Just three members of the choir sat amongst a few dozen chairs.
“We had to come,” said Dorie Ravara, 47, who attended Mass with her husband and three daughters. “We wouldn’t think about not coming.”
Pastor Ramon Gomez urged the congregation to remember the most vulnerable — the poor and elderly — during the crisis and suggested reciting “The Lord’s Prayer” as a spiritual substitute to singing “Happy Birthday” when washing their hands.
At Calvary Church in Los Gatos, Haley Green, Kelly Hesterberg and Miranda Blanks, who normally greet and mingle with some of the 600 congregants who attend services on Sundays, instead were posted in front on Sunday to turn people away. Only two people showed up, unaware that the service had gone online.
“Normally, we try to get people to church,” Pastor Mark Riggins said. “But now God is allowing us to get church to the people.”
The Chun family watched from home.
“I can’t remember not going to church,” said David Chun, who lives nearby but watched the streaming service on TV in his living room with his wife and two children. “Some of my earliest memories are sitting next to people who were not my relatives and singing hymns in church.”
Without people in the pews, donations to churches are sure to plunge. At Calvary, 70% of its donations usually are given in person at church services, but church members on Sunday found a way to pledge online.
“People are giving as we speak,” said Calvary business administrator Kristi Gill, sitting at her laptop and peering at the numbers during the service.
At Temple Emanu-El in San Jose, two bar mitzvahs are being postponed — including one for Justin Ball, whose mother watched Shabbat in her slippers.
It’s been a spiritual and practical challenge, Deanne Ball said, canceling numerous vendors for the catering and parties planned for the event and notifying relatives who had booked flights to attend. Her 13-year-old son has studied intensively for a year to prepare himself for the ritual of becoming an adult.
The idea that these two bar mitzvahs are being postponed “is huge,” Rabbi Dana Magat said. “This is one life cycle you don’t mess with.”
But like every other religious leader reckoning with the coronavirus and all it brings, he is doing his best to be flexible and present with his congregation. In his cavernous synagogue, the recording began.
“These are definitely strange times we’re living in,” he said in his livestreamed service, “but we’re so glad you’ve joined us.”