Georgia pastor Katie Day, new when pandemic began, plans a coronavirus Christmas - The Washington Post

While preaching, Rev. Katie Day climbed onto the back of a white Ford F150 and turned to face the believer in the car and lawn chair.

Dozens of masked mulatto stared at her, some wearing a Santa-themed headband, some wearing a cowboy hat, while she squinted at the sun, scanning the length of the Georgia church parking lot. When she preached happiness in unprecedented times, children occasionally popped out of the car's sunroof, while her 3-year-old son quietly chewed on pretzels and stuck them aside.

"When we see that if we don’t gather in a building, God will no longer be God, and if we don’t gather in a building, the church will certainly not stop being a church. Then in my opinion, if we can Do something else, then we should do it." Dai said, recalling this Sunday in December.

For Day, the 41-year-old pilgrim priest, this is what it means to be a church when conventions are upended and the pandemic forces faith groups to reimagine worship. Her freshness towards church members complicates her work, most of whom

After moving to Duluth in March, she did not hold meetings for several months.

Day is preparing to lead approximately 375 members of the pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church through Christmas. This is one of the most theologically significant festivals in the Christian faith. At the same time, she can only summon through Zoom and keep a distance from the society. Come to get to know most of her sympathizers.

It also plagues the country, with an average of more than 200,000 new cases per day, and the highest level of deaths related to the coronavirus every day.

Day’s church is one of hundreds of thousands of congregations across the country, and their worship has been completely changed due to the pandemic. Among the mainline Protestants who regularly participate in the service at least once a month, only 9%

In July, they only worshiped in person in the past month. More than half of the people said they only participated online or via TV, and 12% said they participated in both in-person and virtual services.

This crisis has raised the question of how to maintain the identity of the church when members are unable to meet under the conditions they have faced for decades. For many churches, forced to rethink how to cultivate faith and communities can reshape their actions after the pandemic.

“It’s a challenge,” said Richard Flory, director of research and evaluation at the Center for Religious and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. “It’s different, and something will be lost.” “But at the same time, People need to figure out some opportunities."

Day stated in Pleasant Hill that there was already an opportunity to realize that 20 people trying to figure out how to keep silent on Zoom can express their beliefs as if they were faith.

Several times a week outside the church, and authorized donations to church partner communities in Honduras and Guatemala.

Dai said: "If the party is really over, then we will be lost." "But if that is...something outside of the community, I think it looks different from what we thought."

Day’s path to Pleasant Hill began with an interview in December last year, when most people’s only understanding of the coronavirus was that an unknown disease was causing

. At the time, she was an assistant pastor in Monterey, California, and she was leading a team of pastors in a welcome church dedicated to community outreach.

She thought she found it in Duluth

Located about 30,000 northeast of Atlanta. By the time she and her family arrived in March, all states across the country had closed public places, and her new congregation only met online.

In May, one day began to face to face with many of her members. On the first Sunday at work, they drove past the church in a decorative car, waved to her, and typed a few words outside the window. When she later met her employees for the first time through video chat, she said that some people could not pick up their cameras to go to work and their faces were always hidden.

Day was enacted in 2006 and was not blocked. Facing the challenge of leading online worship, she practiced eye contact on Zoom. She worked with her voice teacher to learn how to focus on the camera.

She took a lot of notes on the families and history of church members so that she could almost serve them during the hardest days of their lives. She said that one of her first virtual pastor care experiences was when she prayed on the phone with a husband on the phone. Con husband's father died of covid-19 caused by the coronavirus.

Despite Day's efforts, there are still pitfalls in connecting through technology. When talking with others, she could not understand other people's body language. She said that she missed the spontaneous conversations in the corridors of the church, which usually helped her make connections.

After months of observation, the nearby congregation held an outdoor worship service, and Dai said her choice began to attract her. Gathering outside seems to be a way to satisfy people's desire to attend the service in person, while limiting the risk of coronavirus.

When the congregation of Day started outdoor worship in October, it joined

that

Try to balance the desire for solidarity on the lawn or in the parking lot with safety precautions aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.

Pleasant Hill’s parking lot service attracts up to 100 people every Sunday, including the unique features of the form of worship: the crisp sound system, hot coffee and when the priest asks if someone has missed the element of the sacrament, his hands stick out the window. Dade was not sure how long it would last, and decided not to invest in a riser, but to preach from behind the truck.

She said the ability to talk face-to-face with people helped strengthen her previous virtual relationship.

Dade said: "What I lack is the space in the middle-dialogue in the corridor,'show up early in the meeting and sit in my office for a few minutes'".

The 51-year-old Becky Zinn distributes the church bulletin as he drags the car into the back of the parking lot every Sunday. She said she is fascinated by the "on-demand entry" service, which allows people to listen to the car radio or put a blanket on their lawn chair. Some people even brought dogs.

She said that sitting outside the chirping of the birds also made Zinn bring God closer to God in a different way from the indoor sanctuary of the church: "This is a completely different environment. But for me, nature is different. A kind of shelter, so it's very suitable."

After spending two years with the interim pastor, Robin and Cordel Pratt said they were happy to have a permanent pastor, even if they only met her through video at first. But the door-to-door service showed them new aspects of Day's personality: how she hugs her son, she has a strong sense of humor, and makes church members feel like they are talking directly to them.

Robin Prater, who joined the church with her husband in 1991, said: “You can tell every Sunday that she will be more comfortable in understanding people. This is a process and will happen anyway. It’s just a little difficult. ."

As the days get shorter and shorter, Christmas is approaching, and I feel a little uneasy. Can the celebrations after the pandemic change compare with the carefully planned services of the past few years?

Dai said, "I know that whatever we do on Christmas Eve, it will be disappointing." "So my hope is that whatever we do, we can do well and we can find a way to do it. Help people claim the parts that make service important."

During Advent's worship-focused etiquette season, Day stated that she hopes Pleasant Hill's service will prove that her congregation is choosing hope for joy in the coming year.

She said that on the Sunday before Christmas, the church’s traditional choir-style service is of great significance to many members, as important as the holiday itself. Therefore, this weekend, the staff provided an online service that contains music and dance recordings from previous years. In the evening, a large group of people gathered outside the church for a "Blue Christmas" service to mourn the recent loss-more this year than in previous years.

Dai said that she has always focused on the forward-looking nature of the holiday.

She said: "The gifts of this season and the gifts of that day are the miracles of the birth of Jesus." "And as long as we can tell the story and declare hope, then I think we can."

On most Christmas Eve, members of Pleasant Hill gather in the shelter for a candlelit evening. This year, Day and her employees believe that this kind of gathering is not worth the risk.

Therefore, when the gathering agent gathers outside, the lights in the parking lot will go out and a spotlight will shine on the worship leader. At the end of the event, a bucket of water will be prepared and masks will prevent people from blowing out candles.

Then, when the adults sang "Silent Night" in unison, the seducer would walk between the car and the lawn chair, passing the flame from one candle to another under the sky-lighting up the darkness.

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