What it means to “gather” for Easter, Passover, and Ramadan this year

Many religious communities will celebrate holy days online. That doesn’t mean every house of worship will be empty.

Weeks after many places of worship had stopped in-person gatherings to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of Tampa Bay Pentecostal megachurch The River, held two services, each drawing about 500 people, on March 30. In Florida, large gatherings hadn’t been banned yet; however, they were prohibited in Hillsborough County, where Howard-Browne was arrested the following day on charges of unlawful assembly and violating public health quarantine orders. A few days later, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally issued a “safer-at-home” order for the state but has kept open essential services. This includes places of worship.

DeSantis is not alone. The governors of Michigan, Ohio, and Kansas have enacted similar provisions for religious gatherings despite the call for stringent social distancing by public health officials. It’s a contentious stance that differs vastly from states like New York, hardest hit by the pandemic, with some of the strictest orders in the country. But it’s also a divergent position from Nebraska and Iowa, among the handful of states that have refrained from any comprehensive mandate thus far, leaving it instead up to the local counties.

With Easter Sunday less than a week away, it’s not difficult to imagine that the actions of Howard-Browne might be repeated by Christian communities of faith across the country or across the world. Rev. Neichelle Guidry, the dean of Sisters Chapel at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, certainly expects as much, even if she is disappointed by the prospect. “Until pastors face some sort of criminalization or consequence for willfully inviting people into mass gatherings, I think that there will be people who will continue to do that,” she said.

As many houses of worship prepare for upcoming holidays like Easter, as well as Passover and Ramadan, communities are utilizing the various technologies at their disposal, from real-time virtual “gatherings” in Zoom to prerecorded devotions via website portals. Where these digital initiatives were previously supplemental, they have now become the central means of convening during the pandemic — at least for those adhering to social distancing.

For compliant religious leaders, the challenge of the pandemic is reminding their congregants of the tenets of religion that are less about physical space and more about how not meeting during this time is an occasion for charity and empathy toward others.

Many congregations will host Easter services online — except those exercising religious freedom

Like many communities of faith, Guidry’s Sisters Chapel is using digital technologies, including streaming and social media, to keep worship and prayer services ongoing — although, given the community’s young demographic, they were already primed to do so.

In Indiana, where Rev. Shonda Nicole Gladden sometimes leads a typical congregation service of fewer than 100 people in an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) community in Indianapolis, the change from in-person to online gatherings was also relatively quick. A year and a half ago, the church had initiated training for its members to utilize digital resources because of concerns for bad weather or other incidents that might keep people at home. Aside from livestreaming services and calling and writing letters to its members, the church’s initiative — “Wellness Wednesdays,” effectively a bible study led by Gladden — has included presentations by a medical doctor in the last few weeks to educate the community on the coronavirus.

To get through this time of physical distance from her community, Gladden draws from the history of the AME church and its “hush harbor” roots — when enslaved black people met in secret to practice their religion. “We are very much still leaning into the history of the spiritual, the history of our faith, and trusting that the ‘God of our weary years,’ to use the language of the Negro national anthem, the ‘God of our silent tears,’ the ‘God who has brought us thus far on the way … keep us forever in the path, we pray,’” she said.

In that vein, while she’s appreciative of virtual fellowship, Gladden also has concerns about privacy. “The ways that we would be able to seek sanctuary with one another, away from the prying eyes of government, of communities and demographics that are different than our own … the increased surveillance and the potential for surveillance is what concerns me,” she said, referring to the long, documented history of the American government, along with co-conspiring white communities and individuals, spying on and policing black people.

Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

Still, when it comes to the Easter holiday specifically, Gladden urges congregants to maintain social distancing, emphasizing that the liturgical calendar, though not “arbitrary,” is a “construct,” and is not something to be hung up on. Each Sunday is its own Easter observance, she said. “Every Sunday is a mini celebration of the Resurrection.”

This sentiment is shared by Rev. Joseph Jude Gannon, the parish priest of St. Gerard Majella, a Roman Catholic church in the Hollis section of Queens, New York. “We are a Resurrection people, and the Resurrection is more than just one day,” he said.

While many Christians understand that their faith is bigger than a physical building, some communities continue to meet, defying state orders. Over the weekend, on Palm Sunday — the beginning of the Holy Week that precedes Easter — Godspeak Calvary Chapel held services in Thousand Oaks, California, a state that does not consider houses of worship essential services. Outraged by the lack of social distancing, protestors honked their car horns as they lined up outside the church, reports the Los Angeles Times. The pastor, Rob McCoy, even resigned from the city council the night before, as he believed the state edict was in conflict with his religious freedom.

Then there are pastors like Howard-Browne, who have disregarded social distancing orders and opted for conspiracy theories. He believes the coronavirus is a “phantom plague” and a bioweapon created by the Chinese government to destroy the US economy. He’s joined by some other faith leaders across the country including Chuck Baldwin, the pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Montana, who does not believe the virus is a serious threat. Baldwin’s online sermon on March 15 floated the idea that the coronavirus was a possible hoax, and if not, a “psychological ops campaign against the American people” at the hands of the government and the media.

Meanwhile, a group of conservative Catholics is opposing the US bishops’ suspension of masses throughout the country with an online petition, “We Are An Easter People,” calling for priests to hold mass, especially on Easter. As of Tuesday, the petition had gathered over 12,000 signatures.

While many practicing Catholics across the world are currently dispensed from Sunday mass obligations, they have a plethora of online resources including livestreams of priests performing the ritual. Gannon, along with catechists and service leaders, is keeping the church’s food pantry going, alongside regularly calling members of the congregation to pray or just to check on them. Leaders are underscoring that though the building is closed, the church is not. From Gannon’s perspective, social distancing is about protecting vulnerable people and in accordance with the Church’s teachings on respect for life. Moreover, disobeying social restrictions to celebrate Easter would not be an act of faith. “That’s not being charitable, that’s not even being good or holy, that’s being selfish,” he said.

Last week, a friend of Gannon’s, Rev. Jorge Ortiz-Garay of St. Brigid’s church in Brooklyn, New York, became the first priest in the country to die from the virus. “It’s a personal loss, it’s a shepherding loss, but also the community would agree with this statement that he believed wholeheartedly in the Resurrection … and he would be the first one to say the cross leads to the Resurrection so we have hope, you always have hope, you never despair,” said Gannon.

The struggle to celebrate Passover without extended family

Hope contextualized in faith will also be top of mind for many Jewish communities as they observe Passover beginning Wednesday evening. A seven- or eight-day feast commemorated since about 1300 BC, Passover remains a communal celebration with family and friends usually meeting on the first two nights for ritual Seder meals.

Given that Orthodox communities in New York and New Jersey have spurned state mandates and social distancing practices to gather for weddings and funerals over the past few weeks, it’s not unlikely that some families may also open up their homes for Passover. This may occur despite reports that some of these close-knit communities are hot spots for the virus, and despite the potential for subsequent anti-Semitic reactions from others. According to an ABC News report, officials in Lakewood, New Jersey, are concerned not only about the Orthodox communities’ indifference to social distancing but any possible reprisal others may have toward the communities for perceivably or actually breaking the rules.

For Jews in other communities celebrating Passover, the temptation to meet cannot be ignored, even by those who oppose it. “I imagine there may be somewhere, people who decide, ‘Oh, we’re going to get together for our Seder and we’ll just be at different card tables or something’ … there’s always somebody who wants to push the edge of the envelope,” Elizabeth Berke, a cantor at Anshe Emet synagogue in Chicago, told Vox.

Even for Jewish people who are not particularly religious such as Jack Doppelt, a professor of journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, celebrating the holiday is significant. It allows him to recall his childhood, especially fond memories of his father. “Passover is the holiday that means the most to me, and that has to do with my dad. It was his favorite holiday … it was a community event for me and my family,” he said.

In accordance with the social distancing restrictions, Doppelt won’t engage in a normal Passover Seder this year, although he did write and make public a Haggadah that anyone can use. “It was my way of sharing the meaningfulness to me of the holiday with others when I couldn’t do it in the traditional way,” said Doppelt.

At Anshe Emet, a Conservative synagogue, the senior rabbi and a cantor will prerecord a Seder for people to use for parts of their Seders at home, says Berke, who went through a mourning period coming to terms with being away from extended family for Passover. She’s planning to gather virtually like many others but is concerned about those who cannot. “I do worry about the senior population who may not have the capability or the comfort or just even the technology in their home,” she said.

Courtesy of Anshe Emet Synagogue

Attached to a day school, the synagogue initially shut down for one day after the Jewish holiday Purim in early March after a parent of one of the children was diagnosed with Covid-19. While the school closed and the buildings were cleaned, the synagogue still held services that weekend. Few people showed up, and those who did positioned themselves far apart from each other. “By the following week, we said, ‘Okay, we’re just going to be livestreaming and just have a rabbi and a cantor there on the bema, the stage at the front of the sanctuary, and livestream our services with no congregation,’” said Berke.

The use of virtual technologies to observe services is a source of debate in the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards — some synagogues ordinarily don’t allow streaming while others do, with stipulations. “Before this, we only livestreamed services that were not on a Shabbat or a holiday because there are different implications of Jewish law regarding the use of electronics,” Berke said. There is also the matter of a minyan, a congregational quorum required for certain prayers that is now being presumed as occurring digitally, at least at Anshe Emet.

“This is considered a case of emergency, which means you can sort of overlook some of those strictures in Jewish law,” said Berke. “There’s always been that space in Jewish law. There’s an idea called pikuach nefesh. Pikuach nefesh is the idea of, to save a life, put everything else aside.”

A focus on social responsibility for Ramadan instead of physically praying together

The notion of preserving life is also central to Islam; in fact, it’s one of the faith’s five main principles. As such, the spread of the coronavirus has led to lifting the obligation of Jumu’ah, or Friday prayers. Instead, Muslim communities such as New York University’s Islamic Center are utilizing digital spaces to gather.

“We’re having discussion groups, … communal prayers, more in the sense of invocation prayers rather than our ritualistic, five-times-a-day prayer,” said Imam Khalid Latif, the head of the center and one of the university’s chaplains.

NYU’s Islamic Center is also offering more than spiritual guidance and community. Their online programs include mental health staff who engage groups online, yoga and meditation classes, and storytime for children. They’ve even had people offer writing workshops and financial planning training. Additionally, in collaboration with other nonprofit organizations, the center is running a digital campaign to raise funds for those financially affected by the pandemic. Currently, they have obtained over half a million dollars, sums of which are distributed rapidly — sometimes within a day — to those who qualify via a grant system based on need. For Latif, the current mission is about responding to a crisis practically as much as accomplishing obligations of faith. “[It] was a way to create cohesion but also fulfill a lot of the social responsibility that our religion teaches us,” he said.

Courtesy of Nurul Hana Anwar

As the pandemic rages on, social distancing restrictions will likely still be in place in many parts of the country when Ramadan begins on April 23, and potentially through the holy month’s conclusion and commemoration in Eid. A time for fasting and prayer, Ramadan is also a communal time for Muslims, who often enjoy iftar (fast-breaking) meals in large gatherings.

The tradition will be missed by many this year, including Temple University rising senior Hafeezat Bishi. Before the virus kept her in Philadelphia, Bishi had planned to go home to New Jersey once the semester was over to complete Ramadan with her family. She imagined this year’s Ramadan as one of the last she would get to celebrate at her childhood mosque, Yankasa Masjid, in the Bronx, New York, a largely West African community.

“I really miss the support and familiarity it brought me. Being around other Africans … that was the most time I spent around people who are similar to me in that fashion. Because I didn’t have that same surroundings back in my home in Jersey or at school,” said Bishi, who is Nigerian American.

Bishi also expects that while many in the community will adhere to social distancing during Ramadan and possibly Eid, some might gather at home or elsewhere. “I’m certain that one or two families might just go to the park and enjoy themselves, but I know others might be urged to stay inside,” she said.

While the prayer service on Eid is not an obligation and therefore does not require an exemption, Ramadan’s basic tenets remain during the pandemic. “The fast is going to still embody the same mechanics and steps, but the manner in which people approach it will have to be a little bit different,” Latif said.

He recognizes the anguish in being unable to gather, but he also believes breaking social distancing during the month opposes its very essence. “It goes against the fundamental concept of Ramadan itself, which isn’t about empty stomachs, but it’s about full hearts,” Latif said. “And it’s teaching us to look at things through a different prism, really, in pursuit of true beauty and goodness.”

He also had a message that perhaps applies to people of all faiths and none: “There’s an opportunity to think in a bigger sphere, as to how we’re all connected to each other and how our actions impact one another.”