Faithful welcome Easter 2021 with renewed hope
Swaying in pews to “This Little Light of Mine,” the masked congregants at Gary’s New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church felt the stirrings of rebirth on Palm Sunday in the spiritual home taken away by a deadly pandemic one year ago.
As Easter dawns in 2021, many Christians find themselves celebrating Jesus’s resurrection in their home churches with constant COVID-19 reminders like self-contained communion containers, masks and trusty hand sanitizer.
Like Christians at the beginning of the pandemic’s scourge in 2020, Jesus experienced a form of social distancing 2,000 years ago when he spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness swatting away temptations from Satan.
Easter arrives Sunday on the final day of Passover, the Jewish festival that marks their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Members of Orthodox churches, who follow the Julien calendar, celebrate Easter May 2.
Last year’s statewide shutdown that put churches off limits presented a spiritual challenge to ministers and congregations so used to mingling over coffee and sharing in church outreach projects and dinners.
“This year, Easter means more than it ever has,” said Pastor Corey Jackson, who’s led New Shiloh since 2008. “It’s just a liberating feeling to return into the sanctuary.”
Unlike most churches that resorted to remote services as ministers preached to empty pews, Jackson shifted his congregation to the parking lot across the street from the church at 1727 W. 15th Ave.
Each Sunday, he preached outside as his flock sat comfortably in their vehicles.
“The parking lot was a godsend,” said parishioner Julia Matthews. “It was the bridge that got us over … now to be back in church, it means everything.”
Today, the majority of Shiloh’s congregation has been vaccinated against COVID-19 that hit Gary hard last year as the pandemic took root. Totals from March 28 included 151 deaths and 5,236 positive cases.
Like Shiloh, the Griffith Lutheran Church just reopened recently.
The Rev. Freda Scales said worshippers are required to wear masks and they pick up individual communion containers of wafers and wine as they enter the church. Some areas remain roped off for social distancing.
“It was depressing to be in church,” said Scales as she talked about the impact. “When I go into the fellowship hall to do something, it’s just absolutely hollow. By now, we’d have had Lenten dinners, church women’s luncheons. Now, it’s just dead.
“You walk into the sanctuary and we’re all walled off.”
Scales sees light at the end of the tunnel as more parishioners get vaccinated. She’s hoping for a return to normal this year.
“I’ll be so happy when this is over,” she said.
Unlike Shiloh and Griffith Lutheran, the Heartland Christian Center opened last May after Gov. Eric J. Holcomb lifted his shutdown order on churches.
Worshippers aren’t required to wear masks, said lead pastor Phil Willingham. The church still requires social distancing at all four of its campuses in Valparaiso, Hebron, Wanatah and North Judson.
“Families and friends are starting to sit back on the same rows,” he said. “We’re kind of moving ahead.”
During the shutdown last year, Willingham said church staff members made phone calls to members to help fight their depression and loneliness. “Phone calls are great, but it’s not like seeing people,” he said.
Willingham said doesn’t know if there’s vaccine hesitancy among his flock, but he said many are getting vaccinated.
“I don’t think it’s had a taboo side to it,” he said. “Even though it was quickly developed, the trust factor seems to be pretty high.”
As members of New Shiloh arrived for the Palm Sunday service, Shirley Morris greeted them with a small palm crafted in the shape of a cross she pinned on their chests.
“This is everything … the vaccinations give us piece of mind, but we’re still staying seven feet apart,” she said.
Jackson stood in front of his congregation and spoke of warm weather arriving in time for an Easter outdoor cleanup Saturday.
“This time last year it was snowing,” he said. “Temperatures were frigid and we had church outside. All I can say is look at God now.”