Physically distant but spiritually close
Online reservations are needed to attend Mass. Every other pew is taped off, and blue tape crosses mark how far apart people must sit.
But for the first time since March, the Rev. Peter Adamski, pastor of St. James Roman Catholic Church in Stratford, can celebrate Mass with his parishioners inside the church.
This weekend, parishes in the Diocese of Bridgeport can reopen for indoor services and Catholics, who have watched livestreamed services from their homes or attended outdoor Masses, will be able to enter the building that is their spiritual home.
In the Archdiocese of Hartford, however, indoor Masses are limited to weekdays only to avoid having to clean between services. And Christ Episcopal Church in Ansonia is one of a few Episcopal churches that will open June 21.
“I have mixed emotions,” Adamski said. “I’m joyful in that I’m a little tired of looking out at empty pews,” when he has celebrated daily Mass via livestream. On the other hand, “When we go indoors … our risk profile goes up right now, not down.”
For now, there will be just one weekend Mass, at 4:30 p.m. Saturdays. “I don’t want it on my head to do too much too soon,” he said. “The Holy Spirit is telling me, ‘Peter, be prudent about this reopening. Take it slow.’ ”
His parishioners have mixed feelings also, and he’s encouraging older people or those with health conditions to stay home.
“Some have told me they cannot wait to get back inside because it’s a beautiful church, and others have said, ‘we’re not ready to go indoors yet,’ and that’s legitimate,” he said.
Inspired by the Beatles’ last live performance in 1969 atop their Abbey Road recording studio, Adamski has been celebrating weekend Masses from St. James’ roof. Once outdoor Masses were permitted in May, Adamski said, “I had this idea, rather than have a platform … I rented a scissor lift.” Parishioners listen in their cars via an FM transmitter. “I have a little pirate radio station,” Adamski said.
Rabbi Brian Immerman of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden said the synagogue won’t open for in-person worship “at least through the High Holidays ... which would take us to October or even longer.”
Immerman said “one of the most important things to us is community” and that singing is a risky activity. Since older and immuno-compromised people would not be able to attend, “it would not be within our value system to come together and exclude our older community members and those who are at higher risk,” he said.
Offerings
Many parishes have been hit financially by COVID-19 because so many members bring their offerings to church each week.
Adamski said St. James has been hit “not as bad as some other parishes. Some of our parishes have been really hurt.
“My people have been responding to me,” he said. “I’m down about 15 percent, which, given the circumstances, is remarkable.”
Adamski said St. James encourages online giving but 15 percent to 18 percent of the weekly collection “is cash in the basket,” given anonymously. “Some of the parishes, their collections are down well north of 50 percent.”
He said that’s especially true of parishes that don’t stream services online. He, on the other hand, has heard from people in Arizona who said they’ve sent the link to friends in Europe.
The Rev. Richard Beattie of Christ Episcopal Church in Ansonia said his parishioners’ giving has declined but “not horribly.”
“We’ve got a good group of people either sending in or dropping off what would be their normal plate offerings. … We’re getting enough to get us by for the most part and that’s the important thing at this point,” Beattie said.
Rites
Communion has been offered at the outdoor Masses, but it is extra special this weekend. Sunday is the Feast of Corpus Christi, celebrating the Catholic belief that Jesus is present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.
While phase two of the state’s reopening begins Wednesday, houses of worship have been able to allow inside 100 people or 25 percent of their capacity, whichever is smaller, since May 29. Keeping distance may restrict the number even more.
“Shoulder to shoulder I can hold 650” inside St. James’ Main Street church, Adamski said. “But with social distancing 360 degrees, I can hold 90.” That number is flexible, because people who live together can sit together.
The Rev. James Marcello of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Trumbull is opening up his church even more. He started indoor Masses Saturday at 4 and 7:15 p.m. and will celebrate at 7:30, 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday.
“I feel like I am in a car on a rollercoaster slowly approaching the top about to go over the crest,” he said. But he feels prepared. “We have sliced this from every possible angle that we can all think of,” he said, including posting a video about how to come to church safely.
“This is their home and they’ve missed it and I’ve missed them,” he said. “I know that for people who have not been able to receive the Holy Eucharist it will be a real consolation to receive the body of Christ again in Holy Communion.”
Like St. James, St. Catherine has an online reservation system, with up to 85 slots available. Marcello said he’ll be able to celebrate multiple Masses with a lot of help.
Extra cleaning
“We have a team of volunteers that we’ve trained. We’re calling them the reopening team,” Marcello said. The crew will sanitize the church between each service. Every third pew is open and there are separate areas marked for individuals, couples and families of three, four and so on.
The same is true at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Fairfield, where the Rev. Peter Cipriani celebrates three indoor services this weekend. “We have a crackerjack team in place” to keep the church sanitized, he said.
“I’m certainly excited about having people back in church, but the outdoor services worked so well,” he said. If more than the 35 he’s allowing attend any of this weekend’s Masses, there will be a video feed in the church hall and people can receive Communion there or in their cars.
“The thing that I’m most nervous about is people who are going to feel left out” because they didn’t realize they needed to make a reservation or tried to sign up after all slots are filled and “getting their feathers ruffled,” Cipriani said. “What is required is patience and kindness more than anything else,” he said.
At St. Ambrose Parish in North Branford, the Rev. Robert Turner has been limited to weekday Masses, celebrated at St. Augustine Church. “It’s good to have people back,” he said. “We are really a communitybased faith.”
The Archdiocese of Hartford has given no signals about when indoor weekend Masses will resume. “We want to give them a chance to get used to the guidelines … to sort of get their feet wet before we jump into weekend Masses,” said the archdiocese’s spokesman, David Elliott.
“There’s also the logistical issue of cleaning the churches. Obviously, most of the churches have more than one Mass on Sundays,” he said.
Father’s Day will be the first indoor service at Christ Episcopal Church in Ansonia, but Bishop Ian Douglas is not recommending that Communion be offered, so Beattie , priest in charge, will hold morning prayer.
“We wanted to open so that we can recognize our church school graduates as well as high school, junior high and middle school graduates,” he said. “Prior to the pandemic we would have had somewhere in the vicinity of 70 to 75 on a Sunday, though the number drops in summer.
“The key is communicating,” Beattie said. “If we thought we couldn’t do it, we wouldn’t try. What I’ve heard is people just want to get back together as best they can as a faith community.”
Nancy Valentine, Christ Church’s senior warden, said, “I’m most anxious to get back. I’m missing my church family so much. It’s been a long three months.”
Besides using only every third pew and marking seating spaces with green frog tape, “We’re going to be taking temperatures to make sure people are safe as they enter the building,” Valentine said. “Safety first is our motto. We are a senior parish. We do have a lot of older members.”
Douglas said he has recommended that parishes start with phase one guidelines as the state begins phase two.
“We’re taking a more conservative position,” he said. “One reason is so many of our parishes are in a higher-risk group because of age and I feel it’s our responsibility to take care of the least of ours.”
Online success
Many parishes that have been conducting services via Zoom or YouTube have found them to be successful, and Douglas said he is encouraging them to continue online worship. “All parishes who have done anything online have seen a real uptick in their worship,” he said. “We’re strongly advocating for online worship as we enter phase two.”
Online services have been “an unseen and sometimes overlooked possibility” in the past. Now that parishes have learned how to do it, Douglas said he’s told clergy to “join your livestreaming in person rather than … neglecting livestreaming.”
The Rev. Kelcy Steele, pastor of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church in New Haven, said “the engagement has been wonderful” online.
“We’re reaching thousands of more people since we started,” he said. “We average about 3,000 people watching our virtual service each Sunday.”
As for indoor services, “It’s not even on our radar yet,” Steele said. “We’re not even considering reopening given our size and our demographics.” COVID-19 has hit the African-American community twice as hard as whites, and his mostly black parish also has many older members who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, Steele said.
The Rev. Boise Kimber, senior pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven, said, “We’re not prepared to reopen as of yet. We have a lot of other churches that are still not prepared to open.”
Kimber, president of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association, said, “We want to see the numbers going down, and they are going down. We want to see the death rate going down … We want our members to be safe.”
Kimber said it’s unlikely his church will open before August. “I do think that we as blacks have to be more cautious about how we go back and when we go back and how we prepare to go back.”
One New Haven church opened a week ago: the New Haven Spanish Church, a Seventh-day Adventist parish. “We didn’t have a full house. We just had 17 people attend,” said Lionnys St. Natus, wife of pastor Valery St. Natus.
“It went well,” she said. “We had the pews sectioned off zigzag … so nobody was sitting behind anyone. Practically no kids were there.”