{"id":26323,"date":"2020-04-09T18:33:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26323"},"modified":"2020-04-16T15:13:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:13:27","slug":"churches-prepare-for-easter-like-no-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/churches-prepare-for-easter-like-no-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Churches prepare for \u201cEaster like no other\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Local Christian places of worship are now in Holy Week, a\ntime which culminates this Sunday with Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, it is a time for family, faith and\nfellowship, but, due to social distancing, this Easter will be a decidedly\ndifferent experience for faith communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now into a Holy Week like no other in any of our\nlived experience,\u201d says Lorraine Newton-Comar, Co-Pastor of Aurora United\nChurch (AUC). \u201cIf you\u2019re 100-years-old or less, you will not have had any\nexperience like this. This Holy Week feels rather strange but, at the same\ntime, hopeful.\u201d
\nOver the weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Lorraine and co-pastor Andy Comar\nhave felt a sense of \u201chopefulness\u201d amongst their congregation and this is\nsomething they hope to build upon this weekend as Christians worship in any way\nthey can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since March 22, AUC leaders have been broadcasting their\nsermons online, filmed in their family room by one of their sons, edited by a\nmember of the congregation, and incorporating music and other media created by\nparishioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their efforts have gained a following not only among the\nAUC faithful, but viewers across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe response has been really good,\u201d says Andy. \u201cOnce\nyou\u2019re out there, friends share it with their friends and family and people are\nwatching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs preachers, we have had a lot of time to think about\nthe kind of messaging that we want to convey, especially in such an odd time,\u201d\nadds Lorraine. \u201cWhat I will be writing for [this Sunday] is what I have been\nsaying in these past few weeks: staying connected and keeping connected. We\nhave really tried to keep people connected and connecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing we\u2019re hearing from people this Easter, which\nour own family is going to do, is have a Zoom family gathering on Easter Sunday\nand that is about staying connected and reminding each other that we are\nconnected even still, beyond our separateness. Easter is a reminder of our\nconnectiveness to each other and God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying connected is also the focus of Our Lady of Grace\nCatholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Lady of Grace (OLG) has been undergoing extensive\nrenovations since last summer, so the congregation is no stranger to adapting\nto challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they don\u2019t currently have the capability of\nstreaming their masses, they are looking at other ways for their parishioners\nto stay engaged and connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of construction here and we don\u2019t\nhave the technology that we will have when everything is done, so we\u2019re looking\nat having spoken messages from each of our pastoral team members online on\nFacebook,\u201d says OLG pastor Fr. Frank McDevitt. \u201cAs we sit here with essentially\nnot a lot to do because schools are closed, nursing homes are closed and the\nhospitals are restricted, where we would normally be available we\u2019ve decided to\njust start calling parishioners and we have been doing that for about a week\nand a half, which is a very interesting exercise. Everyone wants to talk and\nevery call I make ends up in a really decent chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur message is to hang in there. It is a strange time,\nbut it is a sacred time. A lot of people are feeling very strongly the sense of\nloss in not being able to go to church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and I\ntotally get that, but one of the things I remind people is not having a priest\nto say mass is not just a common experience, they live this year in and year\nout in Northern Canada, parts of South America and other parts of the world\nwhere there is a shortage of clergy. People have to depend on what they can do\nthemselves, especially with reading sacred scripture, and they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Trinity Anglican Church does currently have\nthe capacity to take live services online, but they are pre-recording a service\nfor parishioners that will be available online this Sunday \u2013 and they are also\ntaking things outside of the virtual sanctuary, providing families with tips\nfor an Easter Sunrise Breakfast and Easter Morning Scavenger Hunt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Scavenger Hunt shares some highlights of the Easter\nStory while children are having fun looking for their next clue,\u201d says\nTrinity\u2019s Rev. Karen Hatch. \u201cOur sermons and homilies are still audio recorded\nand posted on our website and Facebook page, which is getting a lot of traffic\nbecause we have been putting on a mixture of sacred things as well as funny\nthings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is definitely a different time. I think we\u2019re finding ourselves moving through that Holy Week of Good Friday journey to the hope of the resurrection of Easter. Even though we\u2019re apart physically, we\u2019re still together spiritually. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, so the message of God never changes, but the circumstances we find ourselves in change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local Christian places of worship are now in Holy Week, a time which culminates this Sunday with Easter. Traditionally, it is a time for family, faith and fellowship, but, due to social distancing, this Easter will be a decidedly different experience for faith communities. \u201cWe\u2019re now into a Holy Week like no other in any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2020-04-09-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Qz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 15:16:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}