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Churches go online and start drive-in services for Holy Week

Hampton Roads churches and others across Virginia are having Easter services online.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — COVID-19 changed the way many go to church, and this includes the thousands of people participating in Holy Week and Easter.

Church members from some different religions shared what they are doing during Holy Week.

“We’re learning how to be Church in a new way really,” said St. Pius X Catholic Church Pastoral associate Mark Hoggard.

“And it has forced us, even more, to be more intentional about ministry and being more creative and how we do it,” said White Oak Spring Baptist Church senior pastor Melvin Wofford.

The new way to celebrate the meaning of Easter is online.

“We’ve got several cameras so that we can go to different areas of the church depending on what's happening in the liturgy, said Hoggard.

Hoggard explained what their Holy Week will look like.

“This isn't just happening in our area, it’s a world-wide event. So the Vatican sent directives and one of the directives that they specifically said was that these could not be taped in advance; they need to be live,” said Hoggard.

Christian churches are providing online services too. Joshua Kelly is with Wave Church in Virginia Beach.

“And we’ll take Communion together and then on Sunday, we’ll have our Easter services at 9 and 11 a.m.,” said Kelly.

Two churches in Franklin are having Easter services in a different way. Kingdom Life Pastor Matt Kidd and White Oak Missionary Baptist Church Senior Pastor Melvin Wofford teamed up and will start drive-in services.

“We have an FM transmitter and they will also be able to tune in their radio to be able to hear as well the music and the message," Pasto Kidd said.

Virginia Beach’s Temple Lev Tikvah Rabbi Israel Zoberman has already started his services online too.

“We had a Passover seder last night with Zoom. It worked out nicely, so we are with the times. We also utilize emails,” Rabbi Zoberman said.

Ohef Shalom Temple in Norfolk is working to embrace the tradition of Passover by opening its doors virtually to anyone during the observance. They had a Seder with more than 100 people online on Thursday night and the temple will continue to host virtual activities.

COVID-19 may have changed the way they give their services, but it has not changed their Holy Week messages.

“I’m praying for everybody, for this virus to go, because there’s a lot of people who are facing a lot of pressure,” said Kelly.

“And just like Passover reminds us, this plague of the virus will pass over the time of freedom will arrive soon,” said Zoberman.

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