Easter is a busy time for churches. It is, for many faiths, the most important time on the calendar.
They can expect to be filled with worshippers remembering the Crucifixion and the returning from the dead. Families meeting for Easter make it part of their tradition and even the very young can be tempted along by the prospect of the odd chocolate egg.
This year is, of course, completely different. Virus measures have left the churches - along with almost everywhere else - empty and locked.
At a time when we are repeatedly met with phrases describing our NHS workers as angels and proclaiming that they, and the people they care for, are in our thoughts and prayers, the very places where you might expect to find people voicing those prayers are closed.
There is a fairly threadbare joke about vicars only working one day of the week, and with that now taken away they should - if the joke holds true - have absolutely nothing to do at all. But that’s not the case. These unparalleled times find vicars busier than ever.
The Rev Stella Bailey, vicar at Kenilworth’s St Nicholas Church, is, like many of her calling, having to come to terms with the challenges and opportunities the current stay-at-home message presents.
For the past few weeks Stella has been live-streaming services from her home - a makeshift dining room corner embellished with a few handy artefacts brought over from the church. For this weekend’s live service there’s even a backdrop of coloured lights. Making the transition between the familiar Sunday service and the new online offering has been little short of a crash course.
"It has been about presenting people with something which is authentic to the church community while also thinking ‘how can I do it within this context?’
"We did have a bit of time to anticipate it happening before lockdown arrived. We were keeping an eye on what was happening in other countries and we were able to warn people that the only way we could continue to offer regular worship would be through Facebook.
"But I do miss the eye contact with the people I’m talking to. There’s a feeling of being disconnected. At times I’ve been on my own in the house and so services have felt very cold."
Some comfort has come through the fact that services are now being enjoyed by people from much further afield. People who have moved out of the area or those who have relatives in the parish are joining in helping to spread the connection further.
"Normally I’m trying to find ways to make the church relevant and attractive to people in their twenties. Now it’s flipped. It’s now the older people I am concerned about staying connected to. In particular those people who are in IT poverty and don’t have access to Facebook and so on."
To meet this need Stella has recently been recording spoken word versions of worship which can be delivered to those who can’t join in the church’s life online.
The response within the community to thse fighting the virus has been something which has moved the whole nation. Expressing our thanks to NHS frontline staff, people collecting our bins and delivering essential services may be something which lives on once the country emerges from this time. But the lesson we have learned is one which, in Stella’s view, must not be forgotten and must be acted upon.
"The clapping and support for those people we rely on has been welcome. But the clapping means nothing if it doesn’t lead to policy changes.
"The time to show how much these people really matter is at the ballot box."
Away from the Sunday duties, life for the parish vicar in these times has been far from easy.
Weddings have had to be called off - some within a very short time of being held. And while one of life’s big family celebrations can be rescheduled for next year, the same cannot be said of funerals. And these are weighing heavily.
Before the virus began to take its toll and the numbers of the dead start to rise in hundreds a day, St Nicholas Church could expect to find around four funerals a month in the diary. Now that figure stands at ten per week. And restrictions mean the funerals themselves are affected.
"The funerals are horrid. Most of them are directly at the graveside or the crematorium and are shortened services with only four people allowed for Warwickshire and five for Coventry. Often you can only speak to the family on the telephone.
"While you are presenting a person’s body before God, there is no opportunity to celebrate that person’s life."
Memorial services months later could become one of the legacies of this crisis and Stella hopes to allow families the chance to take another step on the grieving process.
The prospect of an end to the lockdown and the re-opening of the church doors is something treated with both joy and caution. The world into which we emerge may well be radically changed and new challenges will have to be faced. But the never-changing calendar of the church at least gives reassurance that there will another Easter.
To join Stella for her live-stream services and catch up with those you’ve missed visit stnicholaskenilworth.org.uk.
