Worship shifts into a new gear

For millennia, faith communities have gathered people together.

The coronavirus pandemic is making that basic tenet of religion not just inadvisable but dangerous. So, across Rhode Island, churches, mosques and synagogues are shutting down their buildings but trying not to shut out the faithful.

In Tiverton on Saturday, that took the form of a drive-through.

The Rev. Jay Finelli set up caution tape and signs outside the Church of the Holy Ghost, and about 25 people drove up one car at a time for confession — at a safe distance from Finelli, who was a few feet away dressed in a cassock. (Finelli had seen the idea elsewhere and appropriated it for his church.)

“This is still sacred, even though we’re outside,” Finelli said in a phone interview afterward. “God is present through His church. This is a sacred moment in the lives of these people, who are longing — ‘I so much miss our church. I want to be at the Mass.’ Don’t worry, soon we’ll be back. We’re in the Lord’s hands.”

Rhode Island has entered the weekend with unprecedentedly stringent restrictions on public gatherings. Gov. Gina Raimondo said people should not gather in groups of more than 10 people and that includes religious groups. It was a painful but necessary move in the fight to hold back the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“We do not want to be out and about this weekend seeing large gatherings in temples, large gatherings in churches, large gatherings in mosques, or any other religious setting,” Raimondo said, noting that there were many ways to exercise one’s faith. “If we do, we’re going to ask you to break it up.”

The Muslim Community Center of Kingston closed its doors to Friday prayers, a difficult but necessary choice, its leaders said.

“Emotionally, it’s not easy for Muslim people, especially in Kingston, to say a place of worship is closed,” said Abdelnasser Hussein, the president of the center’s board. “But I think now, after the declaration of emergency of the whole nation and the state of Rhode Island, people are feeling how dangerous it is.”

To fill the gap, the center’s leadership is trying to guide people via social media, Hussein said. It’s not as much about doing the prayers correctly as it is about staying safe, Hussein said.

Rabbi Sarah Mack of Temple Beth-El in Providence said the daily minyan is being held via Zoom, a teleconferencing service. The Friday night shabbat service would be live-streamed from the synagogue, Mack said.

“It’s a new modality,” Mack said. “We’re in the business where we’re trying to get people in the door, and all of a sudden we’ve had to flip that on its head. How can we still have community where it’s not in person?”

It’s possible, Mack said, that people will turn toward religion as a source of comfort. Temple Beth-El has been offering classes via Zoom for small groups to study.

“We’re still creating a sacred community,” she said. “It’s a little bit of a learning curve to figure out how to do that effectively in these turbulent times.” bamaral@ providencejournal.com

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