“Love looks different this year”
For many churches Christmas Eve is one of the biggest services of the year. With spread out families coming together to visit parents and grandparents, even the quietest of country churches can find itself filled to the brim on Dec. 24, under normal circumstances.
In the lead-up to the night before Christmas this year, however, most of Quebec is under the strictest level of COVID-19 restrictions and people have been encouraged to stay home as much as possible. Although even red-level regulations allow for a worship service of up to 25 people, the situation has required many churches to think on their feet when it comes to connecting with their usual faith communities.
“So many different churches are doing things differently,” said Rev. Linda Buchanan who, in addition to being the minister at Lennoxville United Church, is the President of the regional council for United Churches across the province of Quebec.
While the United Church on the larger scale has produced resources and guidelines for churches on how to approach Christmas during the time of COVID, Buchanan shared that each congregation has some flexibility in how they approach the situation. Where in some cases services that respect the 25-person cap might be in the works, other churches have yet to reopen for in-person gathering and are doing everything online.
“Love looks different this year,” she said. “It’s not open doors but masks and waving from a distance.”
The regional president said that she has heard of creative projects like Christmas pageants filmed by several families, each in their own home, then edited together into one cohesive story that can then be shared with the whole church.
“There are churches that have been working since September to record individual choir voices that will be mixed together for a Christmas concert,” she added.
Where some are taking on new creative challenges, though, Buchanan acknowledged that everyone is being forced to adapt.
“I don’t know of any congregation that is going forward with what they normally would do,” she said, offering the perspective that being forced to adjust for the unexpected can be an important opportunity for a church. “This is real life, and if we truly believe that God is working in this new and different and challenging time then we need to live into that. If we just plow ahead, will we learn the lessons there are to learn from this time?”
Eliane Thibault from the Sherbrooke Roman Catholic Archdiocese explained that all catholic churches in the province are following protocols put in place by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec based on consultation with the provincial government, although she noted that some of the larger churches, such as Sherbrooke’s St-michel basilica, have found ways to slightly increase their capacity limit.
“If the church has a hall or a basement that is closed and has its own entrance, we can add 25 people,” she said, explaining that as a result the massive church building has a capacity of 75 per service instead of only 25 in a space that can normally seat hundreds.
Faced with that kind of limitation, Thibault said that a reservation system was imposed to avoid having people line up on the doorsteps Christmas Eve, and the services have been full for weeks.
“You understand that 25 spaces fills up quickly,” she said.
While a few local churches cancelled their mass entirely, most catholic churches in the Townships will be holding services and, in a move that
Thibault said was unique to the area and to this year, they will be allowed to start earlier than usual.
“Normally Christmas Eve mass can only happen after 4 p.m.” she said, explaining that the archbishop has decided to authorize earlier start times this year in order to help as many people attend as possible. Local broadcast television networks like MATV will also be broadcasting the mass at the basilica and some parishes have opted to stream their services to social media.
“Despite it all, we’re trying to serve the community as best we can,” Thibault said.
Hudson Taylor Wells of the Hope Community Church in Lennoxville reflected on how busy a time Christmas usually is with both activities and services.
“It’s definitely been an unusual year,” Wells said, pointing out that Christmas comes after months of having to find new and creative ways to come together as a community of faith.
While the building that the Hope church occupies leaves ample space for the 25 people who will be able to attend each service on Christmas eve, and the service will be broadcast on the internet for those not able to be present in person, the community leader said that part of the challenge has been in figuring out ways to integrate and encourage the community feeling that is lost in just watching one person on a stage.
“We’re looking for more of a ‘welcome to the living room’ feeling,” he said.
In the context of a year where almost all gatherings have needed to take place online, Wells said that an effort has been made to try to continue to stay in touch with and serve the surrounding community, even if it has not always been easy.
“There is still a helping hand nearby,” he said, offering the example of the adaptation of the traditional ‘Christmas for you’ luncheon into a food basket program this year.
The local Anglican leadership did not respond to The Record’s requests for an interview, but the website for the St. Francis Deanery mentions a number of different services that are taking place either online or in limited seating or outdoor contexts.