How Beaufort County congregations will celebrate a holy time upended by coronavirus
Houses of worship in Beaufort County will be all but empty in the coming days during what is typically the most crowded time of year.
Church and synagogue leaders are delivering Easter and Passover services in other ways as they heed recommendations for slowing the spread of coronavirus.
Congregations will listen to music and an Easter message transmitted by radio while not leaving their cars or partake in drive-up communion. Those celebrating Passover can view a video stream of a community Seder and a Yizkor service.
In Beaufort, Cross Community Church will hold two services at the Highway 21 Drive-In on Sunday morning. People have been asked to stay in their cars and restrooms will be closed.
Pastor Taylor Burgess will give his sermon from a stage and others will play music. The audio will be transmitted to car radios like the movies that play on the screens at night.
“We want to do all that we can as a church to bring together some sense of connectiveness, even if it is through our car windows,” said Burgess, whose church typically meets at the Beaufort-Jasper YMCA of the Lowcountry. “Just remind people that they’re not alone.”
At nearby Grays Hill Baptist Church, the congregation will also listen to a service in their cars from an open area near the church.
An annual sunrise service in Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park with First Scots Presbyterian Church and First African Baptist Church of Beaufort has been canceled this year.
Congregation Beth Yam on Hilton Head planned to stream a Passover service Thursday morning and a community Seder that evening. The synagogue has been streaming its regular Friday night Shabbat services and will broadcast a Yizkor service at 10 a.m. April 15.
St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Bluffton will stream Easter Mass on its website - www.sgg.cc - at 11 a.m. in English and 1 p.m. in Spanish.
“Please remember that these directives are meant for the safety and well-being of everyone,” Monsignor Ronald Cellini wrote to parishioners on the church’s Facebook page. “We thank you for your cooperation and look forward to when we can all gather as brothers and sisters in faith.”
Praise Assembly of God on Parris Island Gateway will stream a 9 a.m. service on Facebook and Youtube and a drive-up communion service at 11 a.m., with people asked to remain in their cars.
Queen Chapel African Methodist Church on Hilton Head is conducting services by telephone, with instructions each week on how to call in. “Church buildings might be empty on Easter, but so is the grave!” a recent Facebook post shared by the church said.
At Lowcountry Community Church, a non-denominational congregation in Bluffton, church leaders planned a virtual Easter egg hunt and packed sanitized take-home kits to drop in car windows as vehicles passed through the parking lot. Church volunteers have also made Easter baskets to deliver to local assisted living facilities.
The church already streamed its services online and has worked with other nearby churches with technology advice and equipment for going virtual, executive pastor Jason Best said. Regular church group meetings have been held on Zoom, and instructions have been printed for those less technologically savvy.
Pastors will be online during the pre-recorded Easter service on Sunday to chat with viewers and take prayer requests. The service was filmed at sunrise on the May River.
“We can’t get in the physical building man built, so we said we’ll take it outside to what God built,” Best said. “And what better place to do it.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
