Faithful return to worship in Pa.
As COVID concerns wane, more people are attending church
It was two years ago that the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading all over the world.
At the time, then-President Donald Trump predicted the economy would open back up by Easter and that churches would be packed.
That never happened, and many churches, synagogues and mosques adapted to virtual services and Masses, all while experiencing a steep decline in attendance. But today, attendance is back up, and more people are worshipping in person.
Douglas McPheeters, pastor of Middletown Presbyterian Church on Old Middletown Road in Media, Delaware County, said attendance in the past few months has grown.
“As often happens in crisis situations, faith becomes very important,” he said.
About 50% of the congregation’s members are senior citizens.
Church services reopened in-person in September, with a light audience inside the church at first. In January, the audience rebounded and ultimately even increased in person.
“We’ve had more visitors in the last six months since we started reopening than we had prior to the pandemic,” McPheeters said.
Still, that first Easter during the pandemic shutdown showcased a physical emptiness within the church, the parking lot and Sunday school classroom, McPheeters said.
The pastor took pictures that day of the scene and created a slideshow for the online worship service.
“It showed the sanctuary empty,” he said. “It showed the parking lot empty. The theme of it was: The church is empty on Easter Sunday — and so is the tomb — which is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday.
“We could not gather, but our faith did not stop. Our faith was not quarantined. Our faith was not ended.”
McPheeters said the church is continuing to share services virtually despite fully reopening in-person services in September. This also allows folks who summer in Vermont or winter in Florida to stay engaged with the congregation while away.
And now, for the first Sunday in two years, Middletown Presbyterian Church will be holding full in-person services on Easter.
“The whole Holy Week leading up to Easter and Easter Sunday — that whole story resonates with these last 25 months,” said McPheeters, who became pastor at the church just over a decade ago. “That week was Jesus’ darkest period in his earthly ministry. And yet, it looked on Good Friday that he had lost, and his ministry was over and done.
“But as (author and theologian) Tony Campolo used to say, ‘It’s only Friday. Sunday’s coming.’ And on Sunday, it is ‘new life’ — it is ‘risen from the dead.’ Redemption. And glory. That’s really part of what we’ve lived through. Is God working with us even in what seems like darkness and defeat? And giving us victory even in the midst of what seems like defeat?”
“All of this goes back to faith,” McPheeters said of the last 25 months. “Even when things look bleak to us, and certainly uncomfortable and unpleasant — that doesn’t mean that God is not still at work. And in fact, we learn that is often when he shows up the strongest — in the midst of our darkest periods.”
’You become more grateful’
Christ Community Fellowship is near West Grove in London Grove Township, where Eugene Seibert serves as the pastor.
On March 13, 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all schools and nonessential businesses, as well as nonprofits including religious institutions — to suspend all in-person gatherings and services for two weeks to flatten the curve.
“People were concerned, but we were trying to take the media with a little grain of salt because they hype up headlines,” Seibert said.
Those two weeks turned into a lockdown in which the state mandated people not travel outside their homes unless for emergency reasons or to purchase essential supplies.
Walmart, unlike small businesses and churches and other religious institutions, stayed open throughout the pandemic shutdown.
Still, when the Final Four games of America’s college championship basketball games were canceled, Seibert said he realized the situation would last longer and was serious because the nation doesn’t shut down sports.
“I don’t even watch basketball, but I know it’s a big, big deal,” he said of March Madness and college basketball.
“We stopped for 12 weeks,” Seibert said. “We were one of the first churches to reopen.”
Like most places, the church launched virtual services for that 12-week period via Zoom. Seibert said people prayed together and shared prayer requests posted in the chat box.
“It was a lot better than not seeing each other at all,” he said.
Seibert also featured seven special guest speakers from across the country and around the world.
Christ Community Fellowship began in-person worship services in early June 2020, when the governor lifted some of the initial pandemic shutdown restrictions for the first time, including suspending the state’s lockdown order.
Around the same time, Pennsylvania mandated that people wear masks in public places.
The first in-person service was held outside on June 7, 2020, Seibert said, to allow those who still felt uncomfortable to see one another from a distance, or even remain inside their vehicles. Seibert said he wanted to showcase that they could gather again safely as a community without fear.
“The weather was beautiful,” Seibert said.
After that first Sunday in June, in-person services inside the church resumed.
“We were more on the side of not-so-scared,” Seibert said.
The church made masks optional, sharing with members that the congregation didn’t want people judging one another for wearing masks or not wearing masks.
“Everybody has a different place they are at — where their concern level is — so let’s not judge one another over something as spiritual as a mask,” Seibert said.
He then referred to Romans 13 in the Bible, which reads: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
Seibert said some new members began visiting the church since Christ Community Fellowship was open for in-person services so early while other churches remained closed with virtual services only.
“There was a hard cry for relationships that said we cannot lose the community we have within the church — that faith community,” he said of those 12 weeks.
He added that communication increased among members to connect even more while separated.
While the church held only virtual services on Sundays, members began holding Bible study classes and prayer groups via Zoom during the week.
“You become more grateful for what it means to have one another and have these kinds of friends and have people who encourage each other and inspire each other because of the Lord,” Seibert said. “Nothing is going to take down the Kingdom of God. It will prevail. It will overcome.”
Community interaction
After bouncing back and forth between holding virtual services, in-person services with limited attendance, and now full-capacity services also streamed online Reform Congregation Oheb Sholom in Reading still doesn’t have as many people turning out as it did pre-COVID.
Masks are still worn during services.
Rabbi Brian Michelson said members remain wary about being inside with a large group, and others found the virtual forum an easier way to partake in services.
Since Oheb Sholom is still streaming services, people continue to participate that way, he said.
The upside is that folks who had trouble driving to the services now have that option, as do those who live far away, he said. The temple has members in New York and California. He said Oheb Sholom will continue to stream services, as well as adult education classes.
As COVID cases have dropped across Berks County in recent weeks, Michelson said he is thankful for steps toward normalcy. For instance, the pandemic pushed back many weddings, so Oheb Sholom will host seven in the coming months. It can also hold full funeral services now, and recently brought back its volunteer recognition dinner.
He said not having as many members attending services as there were pre-pandemic is unfortunate because the fellowship members experience is so important.
“Some people are starved for community interaction,” Michelson said.
If there are no more severe spikes in COVID cases due to new variants in the coming months, Michelson thinks attendance numbers will continue to grow.
“I think there is a chance we’ll get back to where we were before,” he said, “but it will take time.”
Appreciating the opportunity
Though in-person attendance is still down somewhat at St. Aloysius Church in Pottstown, when combined with the online audience for streamed services, it’s probably back overall to where it was pre-pandemic, said Rev. Joseph Maloney.
Although there are fewer people in the pews and in-person contributions to the collection baskets are down, members have tripled their online donations to make up the difference, allowing the church to continue operating, he said.
“That is positively amazing,” Maloney said.
The Diocese of Philadelphia still does not want its services to include handshakes during the Sign of Peace or services to include the sharing of sacred blood from the chalice.
Services are otherwise as they used to be, he said.
And Maloney senses those who attend may be more appreciative of the opportunity to do so after being kept away during the height of the pandemic.
“It’s sort of enhanced for them now,” he said.
Resilient faith
First Baptist Church of Pottstown was down to 18 members before the pandemic, a small congregation that included a number of senior citizens, said the Rev. Marcia Bailey.
But switching from in-person to online services boosted its members to about 25, with former members who’d moved away and even some new members participating, she said. One member even joins from Australia.
“The streamed services are just so accessible for people now,” she said, explaining why only a few in-person services are being planned.
“We don’t want to cut off those who are joining us from a distance.”
The Zoom format also allows people to meet well before the services start and stick around to chat after they conclude, Bailey said.
Church meetings will also likely remain online, as will meetings of some new groups the church likely wouldn’t have started yet if it hadn’t become so comfortable with the technology, she said.
That includes a new book club, guided meditation group and Sunday school.
“Once we started trying things online we said, ‘Let’s see where this goes,’ ” Bailey said.
The pandemic prompted many to reexamine their lives and look for new things to connect with, said the Rev. Matt Noll, executive pastor at Calvary Bible Fellowship Church near Sinking Spring.
Noll credits that phenomenon with bringing a lot of new members to the church in the last year.
“They wanted something different,” he said.
An advantage of offering virtual services now continuously gives people an easy way to check out the church and see if it is for them.
“It’s a new front door for us,” Noll said.
The church streams four of its services every weekend, and even if COVID is no longer a concern at some point the online services will continue. Doing so makes sense in today’s technology-heavy society, Noll said.
For those who in the past may have been ill or too busy running their children to weekend activities and couldn’t attend, now they can, he said.
“They still have a way to be with us,” Noll said.