Communion on Facebook Live, minyan on Zoom, meditation on YouTube, and sermons, worship sessions and Bible studies via livestreaming.
Americans of all religions moved quickly from shuttered sanctuaries to their virtual pews, prayer rugs or meditation cushions this week in what appears to be an unprecedented explosion of online religion.
This trend has been building slowly and unevenly for 30 years as the web, mobile technology and social media increasingly integrated themselves into our daily lives.
But with most public gathering spaces closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, all kinds of houses of worship have quickly moved to adopt or perfect their online offerings.
“The rush to online services and spiritual counsel/participation is totally new, in my experience,” said Mark Kellner, a Nevada-based journalist and author of the 1996 book “God on the Internet.”
It’s not just the main weekend services that are livestreamed now, but daily prayer meetings to Talmud studies to the Stations of the Cross and other devotions.
At the same time, clergy are trying to figure out how to maintain the one-on-one contact with parishioners — particularly those least able to use newer technologies, such as the elderly and those who can’t afford high-speed access and equipment.
Funerals are being done with few people present, or just with a blessing at the burial, with memorial services to be held later.
All this comes with some of the holiest days on the religious calendar approaching. No one knows how long the pandemic will continue, but the Christian Holy Week and Easter are approaching, along with the Jewish Passover and the Muslim Ramadan. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has already suspended worship through Easter.
“We have to do ministry in this holy unknowing,” said the Rev. Eric McIntosh of St. James Episcopal Church in Penn Hills. His message to the faithful: “We belong to God, not the virus.”
But how to act on that belonging?
“At this juncture, keeping folks alive is the most important thing, not congregating on Sunday morning,” Rev. Mcintosh said.
But “the Body of Christ,” a common term for the Christian faith, “is not a particular Sunday morning gathering,” Rev. McIntosh said. “It’s the Body of Christ going out into the world. It’s just that going out into the world is online.”
Each evening this past week, Amplify Church lead pastors Jason and AJ Howard have presided over brief communion services via Facebook Live from their home, as members from their large congregation join from home.
The pastors gave a brief message, then encouraged members to use what they have at home for the communion elements — juice, wine, water, bread, crackers, even popcorn — for a service that’s typically done together.
“We are deeply committed to the message, and the methods that we’ve always used have to be rethought, but that’s OK,” Jason Howard said.
Unlike more traditional churches, the independent evangelical church doesn’t have restrictions requiring people to receive the sacrament directly blessed by the presiding minister.
“Theologically, we believe it is our faith that gives us access to what Jesus accomplished for us, regardless of the elements people use,” Jason Howard said.
He said thousands have participated in these, as well as in Zoom meetings and other virtual gatherings of the church’s youth and college-age groups. He said more people watched a livestream of last Sunday’s services than typically attend physical worship at the three campuses in Plum, Bethel Park and the Hill District.
Temple Beth Shalom is hosting its morning and evening prayers by gathering a minyan — a quorum of at least 10 adults — via Zoom. Worshippers can see each other as they chant, bow, pray and respond to one another’s prayers with “amen.”
Traditional Jewish law requires that at least 10 be present for certain prayers to be offered, such as the mourner’s kaddish. While that continues to be observed in Orthodox circles, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the more moderate Conservative Judaism movement recently issued a “Guidance for Remote Minyanim in a time of COVID-19.”
It said that due to the extraordinary circumstances of the virus-caused shutdowns, a minyan can be held online.
Beth Shalom, in Squirrel Hill, hosts midweek minyan and now has them online, with participants from its congregation, as well as from Tree of Life / Or L’Simcha, New Light and Dor Hadash.
“Judaism is a communal religion,” said Beth Shalom Rabbi Seth Adelson. “We depend very heavily on physical proximity, in sharing our rituals together, in sharing our food together, in being together in mourning and celebration. It’s very hard and very unusual for us to be separated from one another physically.”
But the online gatherings have drawn strong attendance. It’s “a sign that people need the framework of tradition at this time,” he said.
Like many houses of worship, the temple has organized volunteers to check in on members so that no one is neglected at a time of social separation.
That’s happening across religious traditions. The Hindu-Jain Temple in Monroeville circulated phone numbers to members so that people can report needs from those in their congregation, particularly the elderly, and also offer help to Pittsburgh’s needy and to Indian foreign students stranded here now that classes have been canceled.
The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh is similarly mobilizing.
“One of our biggest worries now is how this will affect all the low-income and no-income members of our community, and those living paycheck to paycheck, even among the ‘middle class,’” said Imam Chris Caras. “We are trying to find the resources that can help those struggling members who may not be working right now. That’s in addition to helping parents with resources to entertain their children while working remotely.”
The one-on-one level of clergy care needs to be maintained, said the Rev. De Neice Welch, pastor of Bidwell Street United Presbyterian Church in Manchester.
Like many congregations, “we’re all scrambling,” she said. “We’re trying to get all of our technology up to date, our website, Facebook page, everything you can think of.”
But some members, such as some seniors, many not have the technological equipment or know-how to participate.
“We’re figuring out how to keep in touch with them, even if it’s traditional snail mail,” Rev. Welch said.
Some clergy are using FaceTime to check in on parishioners, but for many, the phone still works best.
“I suggested to our pastors, as much as you are able, make a phone call,” said Bishop Kurt Kusserow of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “That’s entirely safe, people can hear your voice, they can be assured you are thinking of them.”
‘Now we’re being tested’
As Rev. Welch prepared to put a prerecorded sermon online, she had plenty of theological thoughts about the current crisis.
“The Bible is replete with a whole lot of messaging about times like this,” she said. “It’s easy to sputter those words, but now we have to live by them. If God promises a peace that passes understanding, now we’re being tested to see if we really believe that.”
And, she said, “we’re also being tested on how kind are we to the neighbor, the stranger, the foreigner.”
Roman Catholics have moved quickly to try to supplement members’ devotional lives at a time when they can’t worship together. Confessions are being arranged in larger, but still private, rooms than the typical confessionals.
Many parishes are livestreaming Masses, and at St. Bernard Parish in Mt. Lebanon, the Rev. David Bonnar led in a virtual Stations of the Cross, a common devotional exercise on Fridays in Lent, guiding devotees in a largely empty chapel.
“We talk about a ministry of presence’ by priests,” Father Bonnar said. “Every day a priest is present in the lives of the faithful in a myriad of ways. sacramentally, at meetings, in the school, in programs. All of that has been taken away right now. What we’ve told them at every single [virtual] Mass as we raise the host and lift the chalice, we lift them up as well.”
The Pittsburgh Buddhist Center, which normally draws 15 to 20 people to meditation sessions at its Harrison temple on Wednesday evenings, is livestreaming them on YouTube, and it is recording guided meditation sessions for groups that meet elsewhere.
“When we hear the news of this spreading virus, it can create fear in us,” its chief abbot, Bhante Pemaratana, said. In the online meditations, he tries to guide the followers to respond.
“So we have to observe the fear, and then you can think about the ways many people are really working hard to overcome this,” he said. “We can be grateful to the steps taken by healthcare authorities working day and night.”
How long will all these new online religious activities endure?
“What will be interesting, in my view, will be to see what happens after this crisis passes, which I pray it shall do soon,” Mr. Kellner, the journalist and author, said. “It seems to me that one of the crucial challenges to congregations of all stripes is that of keeping communities together. It seems that we need bodies in the pews [and donations in the offering] to keep the lights on, etc. Will people come back, or will they be satisfied with online alternative?”
Peter Smith: peter-smith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.
First Published: March 22, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
