‘It’s entirely different.’ Lexington church keeps connections during COVID-19 closure

The pews were empty Sunday morning at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, but leaders at the Catholic church were working to bring its parish together in a different way.

For the second Sunday since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the church’s doors were closed to the public. Instead, church leaders held services in front of cameras instead of a crowd.

“It’s entirely different, and if we think about the word church, (it) comes from the word ecclesia, which means an assembly,” Bishop John Stowe said before the service. “It’s about the people, so having church without the people is really a contradiction in terms.”

The church was one of hundreds across Kentucky that held a live broadcast of their services on Facebook or other online platform. The Christ the King broadcast had more than 3,000 views Sunday.

“We’re blessed to live in a time when technology can bring us together when we can’t physically come together,” Stowe said. “We have to create the virtual assembly or the spiritual assembly.”

Stowe said he tries to be conscious of the fact that parishioners are watching from different places and tries to keep his services engaging, but the change hasn’t been easy for everyone.

“It’s been very painful for people, especially the elderly who are just conditioned that this is part of their life,” Stowe said. “But it’s been touching in a way to hear from people who maybe didn’t value the celebration of Mass and the Eucharist or coming together on Sunday as much and really miss it.”

The new remote services contradict the real-world connections Stowe has always encouraged. But for the common good, he’s encouraging people to stay apart to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus.

“It goes against everything that we believe in and everything that I preach on a regular basis ... in a highly digitized world we’re really always promoting the importance of a real face-to-face encounter. Now we find ourselves reversing temporarily that emphasis.“

To help keep connections despite distancing from one another physically, church leaders and parishioners are taking steps to support each other.

Priests in the diocese have been making inspirational videos to encourage parishioners, Stowe said.

Young, healthy parishioners went to deacon Tim Weinmann at Christ the King and asked what they could do to help the more vulnerable members of their community, he said.

“From the ground up, our people came together. There’s a number of people volunteering,” Weinmann said. “Of course the trick is, how do you help but still maintain safety for everyone involved.”

Church leaders have taken time to figure out how to safely match volunteers up with those people in their community who are unable to get out and need assistance, Weinmann said.

The parish has between 2,500 and 3,000 families who are members. The church is working to help those member’s cope with the complications that come with the COVID-19 outbreak by staying in contact and providing resources, Weinmann said.

To help provide those resources and connections, the church is utilizing technology like Zoom, emails and Facebook, Weinmann said. Some elderly members of the parish have difficulties with the use of technology, but people are coming up with new ways to communicate while social distancing, like talking with each other from separate yards, he said.

“I think people are being very creative and really getting back to some of the basics in life, things that we used to do before we were isolated in different ways,” Weinmann said. “I think people are rediscovering some of the neighborhood and maintaining contact with people.”

As Easter approaches, Christ the King is working to perfect their remote services.

“As people of faith we have to trust that God is going to bring us through this and that something good is going to come out of this situation,” Stowe said.

This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 6:12 PM.