Virus won’t stop Easter worshippers

The congregation at Living Hope Lutheran Church in Saukville is going to gather this Sunday, like they do every Easter.

Parishioners just won’t get out of their cars to do it.

The church plans to hold a “drive-in” Easter service starting at 10:30 a.m., with congregants able to attend by parking in the church parking lot and tuning their radios to 88.5 FM.

The signal can be picked up within a quarter mile of the church, 851 W. Dekora St.

People can also livestream the service in their car, at home or elsewhere via YouTube. A link to the livestream and the bulletin, including the order of service, can be found on the church website, livinghopesaukville.org.

Parishioners will be given special prepackaged communion cups and wafers along with a bulletin as their cars enter the parking lot, Deacon Chris Lear said.

Like many churches during the Covid-19 epidemic and restrictions on public gatherings, Living Hope has been providing services online.

But for Easter, church leaders wanted to do something special, Lear said.

“Living Hope members have been missing normal weekly Sunday worship together,” Lear said. “As good as live-streaming worship is, on Easter, a time when we celebrate Christ’s victory over death and the cross, we feel the need to reach out to each other. 

“Drive-in worship has been done successfully in other churches, so Living Hope is willing to innovate with our worship experience, especially if the worship experience needs to be held outside.”

Other local churches also are offering online services.

Parkside Community United Church of Christ, 166 W Dekora St., prerecorded services for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Easter.

“It’s certainly not the same, but it’s something to hold on to,” Parkside Pastor Susan Drake said. 

River of Life Lutheran Church, 598 Hillcrest Rd., which is a ministry of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, will hold online Easter services at 7, 7:30, 9, and 10:35 a.m. Sunday at www.livestream.com/filministries and on its Facebook page.

Pastor Ethan Luhman said since the stay-at-home directives were issued, all church services and small groups have moved online.

“While we have been putting our services there for two years, we have seen more people watching online than we normally gather in person on a weekend,” he said.

Luhman said the “biggest challenge” is engaging with the church’s senior members. The church has done so by mailing information and lining up volunteers to interact with them, he said.

The church has also established a “Get Help/Give Help” fund that accepts contributions to help Ozaukee County residents in need.

Pastor Olanrewaju Jimoh, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God — Household of God, 145 W. Church St., said his congregation has been attending services and Bible studies remotely through Facebook Live, YouTube and Zoom.

“We try to be a little creative,” he said. “We have faith in God that though the church building is closed,  the church is not.”

The church’s Joyful Foundation food pantry continues to operate, open noon to 2 p.m. Sundays. People can call  (414) 439-7514 or (708) 724-3870 to schedule an appointment for pick up.

The Saukville Community Food Pantry, located in the basement of Parkside Church, continues to be open from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays as demand continues to climb, Executive Director Mark Gierach said.

“Demand has been high; our numbers have jumped by over 40% in the past three weeks,” he said.

Gierach said supplies are dwindling even as more donations have come in from individuals, but store donations are down due to increased sales due to hoarding of some products.

“They can’t give what they don’t have,” Gierach said. “But people are thinking more about others and that is helping.

“Cash is always a good thing; we can stretch a dollar a whole lot further with the discounts we get on many items and then also be able to order exactly what we need.”

Gierach said the pantry has to prepare for the current crisis lasting for months.

Jimoh, however, said he and his congregation are praying that it will end soon.

“It came suddenly, let it disappear suddenly,” he said.