For the first time in two years, many of the Christian churches in Stratford are welcoming parishioners to Easter services in person this weekend – a sign of hope well suited to the occasion, faith leaders say.
“There’s a rising from the ashes and the promise that life’s stronger than death, that new life can emerge out of broken soil,” Avondale United Church Rev. Keith Reynolds said Thursday, 24 hours before Good Friday and the holiest weekend on the Christian calendar.
“I’ve sure been holding on to hope, and (I’m) grateful that hope is holding on to me too.”
Not all Christian denominations share the same traditions, but at this time of the year most are celebrating the end of Lent, a commemoration of the 40-day period Jesus reportedly spent in the desert prior to his public ministry. Afterwards comes Holy Week – Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday – when Christians recall the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Although St. Paul’s Anglican Church in downtown Stratford has been offering in-person services since last summer, the first in-person Easter gathering since 2019 will feel special on Sunday morning, interim priest Megan Collings-Moore said.
“It’s lovely,” she said. “I mean, this is the high-point of the Christian year, right? To be able to do that in person is hugely important.”
That’s not to say Sunday’s services will look exactly as they did prior to the pandemic.
Although many churches have reopened, most have kept masking policies in place, and continue to focus on sanitation and ventilation in an effort to protect a population that includes some of those most vulnerable to COVID-19.
After a modest gathering for Palm Sunday, Collings-Moore said she doesn’t expect pre-pandemic crowds at St. Paul’s this weekend.
“People have been reluctant at some level to return because they are the ones most at risk,” she said. “There’s been bail. We’re still masking. … We’re still making sure the space is well ventilated, so it’s not quite the same yet. It’s getting closer.”
Services at St. Paul’s are being recorded and posted to YouTube.
Back at Avondale, Reynolds led the church’s Good Friday service from home. A couple of dozen people attended in person, but like most of Avondale’s services over the past two years, it was also livestreamed online. Parishioners raised money to purchase the technology earlier in the pandemic.
“We started with a simple camera and then expanded,” Reynolds said. “Overall, I would say we’ve learned a lot from the experience and I would say, through a few bumps along the way, we’ve found it overall to be a very important aspect of our ministry.”
Given a recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Ontario, Reynolds isn’t sure either how many people will be at Avondale on Sunday.
“Right now we really don’t have a sense of what to expect,” he said.
But Reynolds is happy to be able to open up the church’s doors to those who are ready to return.
“We’re following good protocols,” he said. “It’s wonderful to be able to worship in person together. It really makes us who we are as a community, being able to be together and worship and celebrate the Easter story.”
Easter services at Avondale and St. Paul’s are scheduled for 10 am on Sunday.