Pandemic forces changes to how state worships
COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases continue to recede, but churches and synagogues in Connecticut say worship has been irrevocably changed.
“We’ve broken the bounds of time and space,” said Rabbi Michael Friedman, of Temple Israel in Westport.
Rev. Kelcy G.L. Steele, pastor at New Haven’s Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, said, “I don't think it will ever go back to the way it was.”
Varick Memorial is still fully remote. They had returned to in-person worship, but concerns over the omicron variant pushed them back online.
“During this omicron spike, we had to go back to all virtual,” Steele said. “We’re not doing any in-person at the moment.”
A big reason for that decision is how people feel, according to Steele. “The numbers may be down, vaccinations may be up, but still there's a psychological measure that's still at play within the minds of my parishioners,” he said.
That doesn’t mean attendance dropped. Steele said he’s had congregants join from beyond his community, even from outside the state. And even when the church does return to in-person worship, as they expect to on March 6, he expects it will always be hybrid.
“It’s the beginning of shaping a new paradigm and a new way of living,” Steele said. “Some people are not going to return into the building ever.”
Rev. Luk De Volder, of Trinity Episcopal Church, also in New Haven, said, “We’re getting the sense that the pandemic will soon be over,” but things won’t ever be the same.
“The pandemic will have lasting impact on our congregation,” he said. “There has been transformation that is hard to quantify at this moment.”
“This has been a breakthrough of the digital church,” De Volder said.
What began as a way to maintain services during lockdown has transformed worship, De Volder said, and will continue to do so.
“Finally, the internet has become a place where people also gather spiritually in an intensity and a frequency that wasn't happening before,” he said. “That kind of streaming presence is not going away.”
Friedman also said things have changed.
“In-person attendance decreased, but overall attendance increased,” he said. “Now if you count physical attendance, plus YouTube, plus Facebook Live, plus we post the video immediately on YouTube, overall our participation and viewership is up.”
The problem for Friedman is that, “it’s a more diffuse participation.” A synagogue’s primary purpose is to maintain a sense of community, and with fewer people in the sanctuary, “You don’t get that community, we’re-in-this-together type feel.”
“How do we help people feel as though they are part of something beyond themselves?” Friedman asked. “You can do it to some degree digitally, but there's nothing like doing it in person.”
“Like all of us, we’ve learned ways to be more effective on Zoom. Probably like in any profession, you don’t feel like you're quite as effective on Zoom as you are in person,” he said.
Fundraising has changed, as well. Donations haven’t decreased, but the way contributions are made has changed.
Steele said Varick was able to secure a PPP loan at the start of the pandemic and, due to the church’s increased digital presence, donations have become something to manage all week.
“Instead of receiving contributions on Sundays, it’s coming in sporadically throughout the week,” Steele said. “So we just had to change the way we calculate, but we haven't missed a beat.”
Friedman explained that synagogues often have a different fundraising model than churches.
Instead of individual donations, his synagogue has membership dues, often on a steep sliding scale based on what a family is able to offer.
“Synagogues charge membership dues, but we have to prove our value so that you want to stick with us,” he said.
During high holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur amid the pandemic in 2020, “we were able to prove our value beautifully,” Friedman said, transitioning to online worship and offering outdoor services as weather allowed.
They were bolstered, in part, by the sense of urgency felt at the beginning of the pandemic. That urgency has dissipated somewhat as the pandemic has continued.
“Congregations were able to call upon their congregants to contribute financially at the beginning of the pandemic as a sort of emergency measure,” Friedman said. “At this point, we have to prove our value to folks.”