Preaching the Easter sermon via video services. ‘We’re all learning,’ pastors say

Rev. Dennis Bartels is still getting used to a church with no parishioners.

The pastor’s eyes wander back and forth from the empty pews to the camera lens used to stream his Sunday service at Holy Cross Lutheran Church North Miami.

“I feed off of people’s reactions,” Bartels says with a laugh.

Since federal and state authorities restricted mass gatherings last month to curb the spread of the coronavirus, priests, pastors and ministers have spent weeks experimenting, some for the first time, with virtual ways of reaching their congregations.

But the distance feels especially acute for churches and parishioners as Easter Sunday approaches, the holiest day of the year for Christians as they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Religious leaders throughout South Florida are finding ways to reinvent community traditions as they try to replicate Easter customs to a virtual congregation.

“We’re all learning,” Bartels said. “... Just because the coronavirus is happening doesn’t mean that Easter’s going to be silenced.”

‘We’re not shut down’

From virtual choirs to technological hiccups, navigating live-streamed services has become the new reality for many clergy across South Florida.

The Archdiocese of Miami issued Holy Week and Easter guidelines for priests, some of which included canceling drive-thru confessions and encouraging people to find their own palms instead of picking them up at a church. All in-person Masses were halted in mid-March, in the middle of Lent, the 40-day repentance period before Easter.

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Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said some priests who feel unfamiliar with the new technological tools are doing their best to adapt quickly.

“We’re not shut down,” said Wenski, who reiterated last week that there will be no in-person Easter Masses in the Archdiocese, despite Gov. DeSantis’ April 3 stay-at-home order that exempted religious services. “Every church is saying Mass, and so every church will celebrate Easter.”

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As online services have become the conduit to connect through the coronavirus pandemic, some pastors view it as an opportunity to get creative.

Holy Rosary-St. Richard Church in Palmetto Bay canceled its popular Easter Sunrise Service at the Deering Estate, whose lush lawn leads to Biscayne Bay. Father William Sullivan will instead livestream his message from inside the church.

“The technical team [is] working on projecting the sunrise.... behind the altar,” Sullivan said.

At the First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables, the Rev. Hedy Collver, the church’s senior pastor, has been recording services from her backyard and outside the historic church, founded in the 1920s. Footage of readings and choir singers self-distancing inside the empty church are seamlessly edited into the hour-long service.

Pastor Bill White at Christ Journey Church in Coral Gables said his staff has worked tirelessly to ensure that a stay-at-home Easter service won’t be boring, including putting together a virtual Easter egg hunt on Sunday.

“We wanted our people to continue to feel connected and cared for,” White said.

Other pastors are still working out the quirks. Linda Rogers, the chairman of Historic Mt. Zion Baptist Church’s trustee board, said last Friday the church’s online services had gone well since going digital on March 15. But a camera issue briefly shut down Palm Sunday’s livestream.

In another instance, Wenski said one priest tried to use his iPhone to transmit his church service.

“All of a sudden the priest, when he was preaching, he had googly eyes on him... I think somebody else said they had birds flying around them,” Wenski recounted. “But I think most people will understand that practice makes perfect.”

Abandoning tradition

Certain Pascal traditions, like giving out palms during Palm Sunday services, had to be abandoned.

“Some thought had been given to putting [blessed palm fronds] in baskets and leaving them outside the church so people could come by and pick them up, but we decided that wasn’t a good thing to do,” said the Rev. Canon John Tidy with the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida.

And come Sunday, there will be some 20,000 unused plastic eggs stored somewhere in Sunny Isles Beach after the city was forced to cancel its annual Egg Scramble.

“I was honestly really hoping that things might get somewhat back to normal by June,” said Sylvia Flores, the director of Sunny Isles Beach’s cultural & community services department, “... but I’m going to guess now, based on how things have been the past couple of weeks, that that won’t be the case.”

Finding new Easter traditions

Ana and Nari Thompson usually spend the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday chauffeuring their two children to Easter Egg hunts, photo ops with the Easter Bunny and Easter-themed activities. Not this year.

“We’ll probably do a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard,” said Nari, 31, of Miramar.

For Sally Matson of Coral Gables, the countywide “stay-at-home” mandate has been keeping her from congregating with her First United Methodist church family. Five generations of her family have been part of the parish, where her brother recently preached for three years.

Matson, 59, said the church usually puts together a large cross that parishioners fill with flowers from their backyards to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

“It’s eclectic and beautiful, and I don’t think we’ll be able to do that this year,” said Matson, who works with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “There’s people that I only see at church.... It really is a community; we’re very connected.”

On Sunday, Matson said her family will dress up and crowd around a screen to watch the 11 a.m. streamed Easter service at the church. Afterwards, they will celebrate with a brunch at home.

“It’s the best we can do,” she said. “I’m going to miss it. I’m really going to miss it.”

A message of hope

Though the circumstances are far from ideal, approaching uncertainty with faith has been key for the church leaders as they preach to their communities from afar.

“I’m entering into my delivery thinking about people that I usually talk to,” said White. “So I’m not speaking to an empty space. I’m thinking about people that I care about and I’m seeing faces and imagining families that are typically with me in-person every Sunday.”

While online services might never replace a filled sanctuary, the digital transition has given priests and pastors new opportunities to swell their congregations. Many said they have seen more viewers joining their streams.

Rev. Orlando Addison, who preaches at Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Port St. Lucie, has done three live-streamed services in English and three others in Spanish and has seen his congregation grow in both languages online.

“Those who prepare for the challenges of the future will survive... The church should not be afraid of the future,” said Addison, who is originally from Honduras. “Without that, unfortunately the church will not be able to survive.”

This year, the songs, the Scriptures and the sermons take on new meaning as the coronavirus pandemic becomes increasingly personal.

To Bartels, pastors play a crucial role in helping families cope through faith, something he said was reminiscent of the very first Easter.

The disciples “were locked behind closed doors and they were afraid,” Bartels said. “We have fear of the virus and we’re kind of isolated ourselves and yet, through that process, what did Jesus do? He came in the midst of them.”