Across faiths, pandemic alters services

London and its environs are home to a notable diversity of faiths and flocks. Rites that have been the bedrock of their beliefs for centuries had to evolve swiftly during the pandemic lockdown to be safe and relevant for the faithful amid global uncertainty.

In the Hertfordshire county village of Northchurch, Anglicans normally worship in the more than 1,000-year-old St. Mary’s Church. That ended March 24 when the Church of England closed all its buildings, and Canon Rev. Jonathan Gordon began recording and broadcasting weekly services via smartphone with the help of Rachel Gordon, his wife.

“It posed an immediate and immense challenge,” Gordon said. “It meant that we had to completely rethink how we did everything.”

Challenges of online worship

Taking worship services virtual has been particularly challenging for the Orthodox Jewish community, members of which are proscribed from using electronics on Shabbat, their day of rest. Rabbi Mordechai Chalk broadcasts video services from his home Fridays just before sunset, as Shabbat nears.

“L’chaim,” he toasted in Hebrew recently, connected to the congregation via Zoom. His children ran into the picture in their pajamas to peer curiously at his laptop, before Shira Chalk, his wife, whisked them away for a bedtime story.

Rabbi David Mason, who heads an Orthodox synagogue in North London, recalled going to a Jewish cemetery to preside over a funeral and being “aghast” at the rows of new graves, often several people being interred the same day.

“It really hit me, you know, the number of dead that we’ve got,” Mason said. “And that’s one cemetery of many.”

Lighter moments

But religions have endured trauma countless times before, and indeed, many of the tenets of faith held dear today were born out of hardship and suffering. And today’s pandemic has not been without its lighter moments.

Mason said he took joy from knowing tech-savvy volunteers were spending hours on the phone patiently helping older community members get online for services.

“My high point during lockdown was when a 90-year-old lady came onto a Sunday night talk and explained how delighted she was,” the rabbi said. “That’s how communal collaboration works. I watched it work, and it was just wonderful.”