Pastor John Karle gives his message to the Faith Bible Church congregation gathered on the front lawn of the Honeoye church on Sunday, Aug. 9. [L. DAVID WHEELER/MESSENGER POST MEDIA]

The Rev. David Hefling tells a story of when he was called to a local healthcare facility to administer last rites to a patient — but, due to the restrictions levied as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, he wasn’t allowed in the building.

The rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Canandaigua walked around the building and looked through a door while holding, as he recalls, an umbrella, a prayer book and a phone.

“They had an iPad in the ICU with them,” Hefling recalled. “It was a little unusual. It worked — it would certainly not be my preferred way, but it worked for the situation.”

That reflection is a common theme among clergy and other leadership in area faith communities: Congregations may not be able to do everything they used to do, or would prefer to do — but, as they say, the church remains the church and must continue ministering to the needs of people, both in and out of the congregation.

The pandemic has been hard on churches and their congregants — logistically, spiritually, financially and emotionally — clergy note. “I see the PTSD, I see the grief — we see in each other in our church, when someone’s just had it to the limit,” said the Rev. Corey Keyes of West Bloomfield Congregational Church.

And even as many congregations have begun returning to meeting in person — some outdoors, some indoors with many precautions — there’s a palpable sense that things aren’t going to be the way they were for some time to come, if at all.

“Some of our beloved programs and patterns of behavior are gone. We aren’t going to return to the same ways and the same patterns,” said the Rev. Colin Pritchard of the First Presbyterian Church of Victor.

But there have been some upsides: The situation has forced just about every religious grouping to increase their online outreach, allowing them to connect with and minister to more people, some who wouldn’t — or can’t — otherwise come to church. Ministers have posted video services online, services have been held via Zoom or Facebook Live. Some churches, like The United Church in Canandaigua, even held an online Vacation Bible School for children.

Plus, there’s been a renewed appreciation of a concept that most affirm: The church is not contained within the walls of a building; the church is people.

“The church is really the Body of Christ, it’s not a building,” said Virginia Holroyd, administrative coordinator and director of visitations at The United Church. “There’s all sorts of ways to stay connected. That’s the critical part — how we keep connected with all ages in the church.”

Bill Robinson, a pastor at Crosswinds Wesleyan Church in Canandaigua who’s active in the Ontario County Jail ministry, echoed those sentiments.

“We keep stressing that the church never closed. We may not be meeting in the same building, but we’re still active, we’re still doing stuff,” Robinson said in an interview last month. “… There is a faith community quietly going about doing the work of the kingdom even though we can’t sit down and talk.”

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Cyber-worship

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The statewide pause instituted in March for all institutions not deemed “essential” by Albany required congregations to rethink how they do their worship services, as well as ministries, religious education and more. And the slow, incremental emergence from the pause has forced a consideration of what can, or should, be safely done.

In the early months of the pause, churches were forced to go online in order to continue services — which meant doing some serious brushing up on their technological capabilities.

“I was creating more (online) content those first three months than the last five years of my ministry,” Keyes said, noting he’d been “dragging my heels” on livestream worship before the pause. That content had included not only leading an online service from the West Bloomfield church, but posting frequent pastoral messages and affirmations. “That daily positive reinforcement of ‘we can do this, we’re in this together’ has been great,” he said.

Hefling as well said he started sending out daily “e-blasts” — news church happenings, prayers and reflections. “People have had something to look forward to every day that connected them to our congregation,” he said.

Many churches began holding services online via such avenues as Zoom or Facebook Live. Trinity Federated Church in Naples even added a monthly communion service, with congregants allowed to use their own communion elements at home, per guidelines of the Presbyterian Church USA, the Rev. Robin Lestetter noted.

A learning process was involved, of course. “It was quite a task getting a number of our senior citizens into it — they had computers, but weren’t really computer-literate,” said the Rev. Steve Charles of New Covenant Baptist Church in Hopewell. Having chosen the Zoom platform over Facebook Live due to its interactive nature (in which people can see and hear one another if they choose), New Covenant found another benefit to Zoom: People can access the meeting by phone. “We really didn’t want to isolate people” who weren’t technologically adept, he noted.

St. John’s Episcopal does a Sunday morning livestream service of mostly prayers, Hefling noted, and he conducts an online prayer service on Wednesday evenings. The United Church started out recording a service on Saturdays to post online Sundays and started live-streaming the first weekend in July. At Faith Bible Church in Honeoye, initially the Rev. John Karle would present a pre-written message on Facebook, and the congregation would have a virtual prayer meeting on Wednesdays. First Presbyterian Church of Victor has used a combination of Facebook Live and Zoom.

As in most spheres of life — education, business, entertainment — interacting through screens isn’t the same thing as gathering in person. Though it has had an upside: Charles said New Covenant has seen a number of people taking part in the Zoom services who weren’t regular attendees.

Many congregations continue to livestream their services along with other online outreaches, even if they have begun meeting in person. It enables them to stay connected with people who wouldn’t or can’t attend services in person, for whatever reason: Some live far away; some are immuno-compromised or shut-in or ill; some just prefer the format.

“I think for all of us this has been challenging just to pivot and think about ministry in the church in a really different way,” said The United Church’s director of children’s education Deb Marshall, who did a virtual Vacation Bible School and is planning virtual Sunday School. “We as a church were kind of behind with the whole technology kind of thing. We had never recorded a sermon or live-streamed a service.”

Or as the Rev. Kristen Allen, new pastor of the Penn Yan United Methodist Church, put it: “It has jolted a lot of churches out of the mid-20th century model and into the 21st century, in terms of technology. We’ve all had to become good at online worship. It’s opened up a lot of new possibilities.”

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Opening up

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It was an eye-opening moment for West Bloomfield Congregational Church’s Keyes. He recalls a drive-by parade the local Eastern Star held for one of the church’s members who had been on a ventilator fighting COVID-19 for 13 days — and what just that small level of interaction meant for people after a long time in isolation, how it underscored the deep need that people have for fellowship and companionship.

“That was the first time they’d seen each other for weeks,” Keyes said. “That’s when we realized we had to find ways to look into each other’s eyes.”

As useful a tool as the online components have been, almost everyone would say it’s not the same, and that for religious congregations in particular the act of physically gathering as one body to worship, learn and interact in community is essential, is core — while at the same time acknowledging that the need to protect people’s health and well-being has required sacrificing that aspect for a time.

How long a time? That varies from congregation to congregation, as does the level of reopening they’re doing now that they can. As the state’s reopening policies have allowed religious gatherings to resume, some have begun meeting inside their buildings for services, though with strict safety measures in place: socially distanced seating, required masks and the like. Others are meeting outside on their properties for services, and others are sticking to online services so far.

And some are doing a combination of the approaches: First United Methodist Church of Canandaigua, for instance, has two Sunday morning services, a 9 a.m. parking-lot service and an 11 a.m. gathering in the sanctuary, plus a sermon recorded in advance that gets posted Sundays. This route helps meet people’s preferences and follows social distancing rules. “There’s three tiers of connectivity,” said the Rev. Bill Allen.

New York originally restricted gatherings to no more than 10, then in the intervening months instituted its four-stage reopening plan, with houses of worship initially allowed to open to 25% capacity in Phase 2, a capacity that increased in subsequent phases to 33%.

“Anywhere where you have a concentration of density, the gatherings, that’s the issue,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in May in defense of the policies, noting that the initial outbreak in New York — the state hardest-hit by the virus — was in a New Rochelle synagogue’s congregation.

As other spheres such as restaurants and retail were allowed to open at greater capacity, there was pushback from some who believed faith communities to be particularly singled out, and that the restrictions constituted an infringement on the constitutionally protected freedoms of religion and assembly. In May, for instance, a group of clergy from various Ontario, Wayne and Seneca county evangelical churches gathered — socially distanced — outside New Covenant for a press conference, in which they said it was time for reopening churches, in a safe and responsible manner.

One federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in late June in a case brought by two Catholic priests in the North Country and three Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, saying the state was improperly placing a higher restriction on religious gatherings when compared both to restaurants/bars and to public protests in the wake of the death of a Black man under a Minneapolis police officer’s knee.

In the end, gathering together in worship is an essential part of the faith, New Covenant’s Charles noted.

“Spiritually, we are a body,” he said. “We are not just people consuming religious stuff. We are the church, and being the church when we’re isolated and separated has been a serious challenge.”

New Covenant began meeting outside starting May 31 after a couple months of holding Zoom services — with plans to eventually move inside, expanding to two services in order to seat fewer people at a time, and maintaining social distancing and other precautions. While meeting outside, congregants are to maintain 6 feet of distance — 12 feet if singing, Charles noted.

Faith Bible Church’s small congregation is meeting outside under the shade trees of the Honeoye church’s front lawn. Chairs are supposed to be 6 feet apart (though family groups can sit together); people leave their seats individually to place their offerings in a basket rather than passing a plate; and there is no congregational singing. A guitarist plays hymns during the offertory and other parts of the service. Some 50% to 60% of the congregation generally attends, said the Rev. John Karle.

There are positive and negative elements, he noted.

“One of the negatives is that we do not have a lot of verbal fellowship with one another,” Karle wrote in an email response to the Messenger. “After the closing prayer, we say ‘Amen’ and the people mostly exit right to their cars to go home vs. staying for fellowship and talk. We miss those connections, but again (we) are doing all we can to stay safe.” On a positive note, though: “We are again assembling together in person. I get a chance to welcome everyone, to address our prayer requests, and present the Word of God. This is such a positive to being opened again, seeing each other.”

The United Church has begun indoor services, though with pews roped off to maintain distancing. (They had some fun with that last part: Marshall put signs up on the restricted pews with messages like “Jesus seated the 5,000 down by rows — but not this one!”) And the church is adding a Wednesday evening service in September, so those who can’t attend Sundays can still gather in person.

West Bloomfield Congregational Church is staying outside for now, with outdoor and online options — and Keyes said they’re committed to not moving services into the sanctuary until everyone can safely do it. He says there’s no interest in having just a portion of the congregation gather — it goes against the idea of the unity of the church. Plus, they don’t want to put anyone in the position of having to be the “bouncer” or enforcer of mask, distancing and capacity restrictions. So until it’s safe for everyone inside, he noted, the church will remain outdoors and/or online.

St. Mary’s Church in Canandaigua and St. Bridget’s Church in Bloomfield, both part of the St. Benedict Parish, have resumed weekend Masses and are starting to resume daily Masses, and plans are underway to open up St. Mary’s School in September, according to Fr. Michael Costik. Reopening plans were submitted both to the state and to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, which grants parishes flexibility in how they go about reopening as long as they meet public-health guidelines. They opted to continue multiple services rather than reduce the number, allowing for the gatherings to remain in socially distanced capacity.

In the Eucharist sacrament, in which parishioners may receive the elements either by hand or on the tongue, Costik said they encourage it to be done by hand, and both parishioners and clergy are masked except when actually partaking. Some confessions have been heard on the rectory porch.

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‘People are lonely’

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Gathering for worship is just part of a faith community’s life, of course: There are ministries to the community, there is religious education, there is pastoral care — and as with worship services, faith groups have had to revisit how they do things.

Robinson, who is active in Crosswinds’ ministry at the Ontario County Jail — what he calls the “Hopewell campus” — said his team mostly has been bringing DVDs of the church service for inmates to watch inside the facility, as they haven’t been allowed in to conduct a Sunday service as they used to. They’ve done some video visits, but have primarily been connecting by mail to inmates at facilities throughout the state.

“The thing that I’ve been stressing with the team … we like to go in and build relationships and connect people with the greater faith community when they get out — and that’s been off the table,” Robinson said. “And we found it’s the relationship building that’s the important part. We teach a lot of doctrine and theology, but it’s been the relationships. That’s been tough on us because we want to be with people.” He urges his colleagues to “simply trust that God is working even when we’re not there to see it.”

“I tell them I look forward to when they let us in so we can see what God’s been up to,” Robinson said.

First Presbyterian Church of Victor was unable to host safe housing through Family Promise of Ontario County as it had done, but has found other avenues to serve the community. The church partnered with the Victor Farmington Food Cupboard to offer free, weekly Summer Curbside Meal Kits to families in the Victor school district who receive free and reduced lunches during the school year: a full meal kit for a family of four, plus some supplementals and snack items. Pritchard said the church committed to serving up to 100 families per week for an 11-week block.

Pastors and others have attempted to stay connected to their congregants and to people in isolation, to offer the simplest and most basic need — to let them know they are cared for, they are loved.

Trinity’s Lestestter said she and church leaders made a list of 21 households and families, some older or without net access, to be checked in on regularly so they didn’t feel abandoned. (Some have since come out to outdoor services, she said.) One deacon drives around regularly to talk with people in their yards; others connect to people by phone.

“People are lonely,” Pritchard said. “And these folks are having to make conscious decisions to connect with other folks when before it was just a natural course of daily living. … We know, psychologically and spiritually, isolation’s bad for you.” Couple that with trepidation about how long the pandemic will last, the danger of exposure, potential loss of livelihoods, what will happen when school’s back in session — it’s a lot for people to handle.

“We got a real reminder of our fragility in all of this,” St. Benedict’s Costik said. He’s been gratified by the parishioners’ generally understanding nature — “what’s really wonderful is how patient everyone has been and how really supportive the parishioners have been.” He’s tried to foster that — to encourage people to realize that as profound as the challenges are, “this could be a lot worse than it has been … we need to be grateful for what we have.”

“Human beings are so fragile, life is fragile — we spend most of our time distracting ourselves from that simple fact,” Keyes said. In a crisis like this one, “you begin to hold loved ones a little more tightly — regard people with whom you may have had disagreements a little more charitably. … It’s an opportunity to take an honest appraisal of the way we do everything and change for the better. It’s my hope that we don’t immediately fall back into complacency, but we use this time to make improvements.”