Churches improvise for Easter celebrations

The celebration of Easter Sunday was limited by restrictions stemming from the coronavirus in the US, which has the most cases and deaths of the pandemic.

Shortly before 4 pm ET Sunday, the US was approaching 548,000 coronavirus cases and nearing 22,000 COVID-19 deaths.

In Texas, both Austin and Houston closed all local parks from last Friday to Sunday to prevent people from gathering outdoors for Easter. Texas has closed all state parks indefinitely a few days ago.

In Kentucky, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear warned at a news conference on Friday that anyone planning to attend an in-person mass gathering over the weekend would face quarantine orders.

"This is the only way we can ensure that your decision doesn't kill someone else," Beshear said. He noted that an outbreak in Hopkins County that sickened dozens and led to multiple deaths was traced to a church revival meeting there in mid-March.

"Folks, we shouldn't have to do this," Beshear said. "What we're asking is for you to love your neighbor as yourself."

Beshear said that officials were aware of about six churches in the state that were planning to hold in-person services.

He asked Kentucky State Police to record the license-plate numbers of any vehicle seen at the gatherings. Local health officials then will contact the people associated with those vehicles and require them to self-quarantine for 14 days.

US Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, criticized the governor's move in a tweet Friday: "Taking license plates at church? Quarantining someone for being Christian on Easter Sunday? Someone needs to take a step back here."

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott listed church gathering as an essential services as long as the social distance rule was observed.

The Glorious Way Church in Houston planned to hold two Sunday Easter services with a 100-person limit for each. The church normally has about 1,000 people for Sunday services.

The church issued a statement on April 6 stating that "spiritual feeding of people in this time of crisis is just as important as going to the grocery store, especially when similar safety measures are taken". The church plans to hold one service per week during the pandemic outbreak.

Lakewood Church in Houston, one of the largest congregations in the US, has an average attendance of 52,000 a week. It took a different approach from the Glorious Church and livestreamed its Easter service.

On Sunday, beginning at 11 am, a group of Christian musicians performed to 16,800 empty seats at the church's facility, formerly the Compaq Center, where the NBA's Houston Rockets had once played. The celebration was mixed with sermons from pastors and speeches by the Houston mayor and police chief.

Famous entertainers such as Mariah Carey and Kanye West also sang for the livestream.

The virtual service was streamed on the church's website, Facebook and YouTube accounts. The Facebook account showed about 5,700 live views by late Sunday morning.

Despite the Texas governor's blessing for the churchgoers to gather, many churches across the state suspended Sunday services with no special exceptions for Easter.

With in-person attendance restricted across the country, churches find their collection boxes are hurting.

In Tinley Park, a village in Illinois, St. Julie Billiart Pastor Lou Tylka said the lack of services has reduced the church's collection dramatically, according to the Chicago Tribune.

On March 8, before the suspension of all religious services, St. Julie Billiart collected $11,895 at Sunday Mass. The next week, with its church doors closed, the parish collected $2,479, according to the parish bulletin.

Joseph Lajoie, pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver, Colorado, said that the prospect of several weeks and potentially months without a collection at Sunday Masses is a "potentially crippling, if not mortal, blow" for his parish, the Catholic News Agency reported in mid-March.

Father Ronald Cattany, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in enver, said over the first weekend after Masses were suspended, the donation was down by 75 percent from a typical weekend.

"Everybody should be anticipating shortfalls in giving, shortfalls in collections," Garet Robinson, a Houston pastor, told the Houston Chronicle in March. "It's a global contagion — and not just the actual viral part, but the ripple effect in the economy."

Elsewhere, Pope Francis called for global solidarity in fighting the pandemic and its economic fallout, urging the relaxation of international sanctions, debt relief for poor nations and ceasefires in all conflicts.

The pope delivered his Easter message from an empty St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City instead of to the usual crowd of tens of thousands in the square outside.

Also in Italy, opera star Andrea Bocelli sang songs in an empty cathedral in Milan in a performance that was seen around the world on his YouTube channel.

Reuters contributed to this story.