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It all felt so familiar: the cross wrapped in purple drapes hanging on the wall, the choir singing in sync with the organ and the pastor in his usual place preaching from the pulpit.
Sure, the wooden pews were empty. But on this day, her couch was the pew as she streamed the service from her iPad.
“It felt real,” said Marcia Gruschow, 69, who is a member of First St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Old Town. “It felt like I was there.”
It was Gruschow’s first time watching her church’s service online. But for Gruschow and many others, this has become a new reality.
From Christians to Jews to Muslims, people in the Chicago area and across the world have been forced to find ways to remain spiritually engaged and socially connected, as the threat of COVID-19 persists and widespread government stayat-home orders are in effect.
Religious leaders first altered services, limiting physical contact, and then canceled religious services altogether, stripping access to rituals precious to millions of people. As places of worship closed their doors, pastors, rabbis, imams and their congregations had to adjust to fight the isolation.
In a message before his online sermon Sunday morning, the Rev. Tom Johnson of First St. Paul’s advised his congregation not to retreat socially during this time of isolation.
“I do hope that we will call one another, email one another, text one another, Facebook one another,” he said. “Stay socially connected. Stay knitted together as the body of Christ.”
Similarly, in a public video released this week, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich encouraged people to maintain a spiritual closeness during church and school closures. “Now more than ever, we need the comfort and peace worshipping together brings,” Cupich said. “The church is so much more than a building. For each family, each home is a domestic church.”
Some religious obligations, however, cannot be fulfilled through a computer screen.
Muslim men are mandated by scripture to pray every Friday with a congregation at a mosque, said Salman Azam, member and secretary at the Downtown Islamic Center. So, when he learned that his mosque would be closed for Friday prayer, he took matters into his own hands.
When he arrived home after work the first Friday after prayer services were canceled, he put on his kufi, laid his prayer rug out facing northeast toward Mecca and prayed. But something was missing.
“I tried to emulate it as much as possible, but it definitely felt like something was missing, and it was a very eerie feeling,” Azam said.
During Ramadan, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, which is approaching, mosques usually play a vital role for
Muslims.
“These are the weeks leading up to Ramadan, so people try to strengthen that spiritual connection as they approach Ramadan, and the mosque has some communal fasts to help get them ready and excited,” Azam said.
But having no building to gather in leaves more than a spiritual void for people whose social life is centered on their place of worship.
Hasmick Rich, 95, who attends Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, said she has many friends at her church and she felt a loss when church services were suspended.
“The church has been my second home,” she said. “It’s more or less my life these days.”
But being able to remotely tap into her pastor’s weekly sermon and stay connected with other church members online has buoyed her spirits.
“I’ve not been a big fan of technology,” Rich said. “Maybe because it’s kind of over my head. But it has brought people together, and if we didn’t have access, I wouldn’t be able to see and talk to these people.”
Ruth Czarnecki-Lichstein, who attends KAM Isaiah Israel in Kenwood, said many of her friends attend her synagogue, so she felt at ease when her family streamed her synagogue’s family service for the first time.
“That first one, it was kind of comforting to have because everything is a little tense right now,” she said. “It was nice to have that familiar piece of life.”
During these uncertain times, having access to religious services, even remotely, has brought solace to many people.
“It helps you not feel alone,” Gruschow said. “It helps you have something to look forward to. It helps you know that you’re experiencing and sharing it with other people.”