Sonoma County churches celebrate Easter with online prayer, music amid pandemic

On Sunday morning, Ben and Jillian Bryant of Santa Rosa and their two young daughters will dress up for church on the holiest day of the year for Christians around the world.

But the Bryants won’t leave home, even though the Presbyterian Church of the Roses is just four blocks from their house near Montgomery Village.

Instead, in keeping with the coronavirus-imposed trend toward online worship, they will settle in front of their television for an Easter service on the church’s YouTube channel, complete with the Rev. Cindy Alloway’s sermon, music, prayers and her message to children.

“Easter is going to be a little different this year, but mostly it’s the same,” Jillian Bryant said. “We have the hope, joy and peace that Easter Sunday brings us. We have comfort in knowing our sins are forgiven and that we have an eternal home in heaven.”

Later on Sunday, Maya, almost 4, and Macie June, 22 months old, will hunt for Easter eggs in the family’s yard in a Zoom session, joined by Ben’s brother, John Bryant, his wife, Nital, and their son, Daman, 2, in their small San Francisco apartment for an audience of grandparents, uncles and aunts.

“Should be interesting trying to keep the kids from starting the hunt until after we start the Zoom,” Ben Bryant said.

Easter, the celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, is the “foundation of the Christian faith,” said Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa, whose Sunday Mass will be livestreamed from a nearly empty St. Eugene Cathedral.

Quoting from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament, the bishop said: “If Christ did not rise from the dead then our faith is in vain.”

Celebrating Easter without an assembled congregation “is a completely new and unique situation,” Vasa said, noting that the church “calls all of her sons and daughters, scattered throughout the world, to come together to watch and pray.”

Online communication enables everyone in California to come together, something “no single church building ... no stadium, no matter how large, could accomplish ... but this is what we are doing this weekend,” he said.

The bishop, whose diocese stretches along the coast from Sonoma County to the Oregon border, acknowledged that many Catholics are drawn to familiar parish churches “where we find solace,” but the deadly virus renders that risk unwise. The same precaution, he said, is preventing families from visiting loved ones in hospitals.

“We face this temporary separation from the Lord with a founded hope that we will be returning to church,” Vasa said.

The virtual services emanating from Church of the Roses include Alloway inside the church - decorated with flowers for Easter - preaching and reading from Scripture, spliced with video segments recorded by the congregation’s music director, soloists and accompanists, as well as liturgists reading prayers, all from their own homes.

“Our goal is to promote a connection to God and to one another for a sense of peace and well-being in the midst of chaos,” Alloway said.

The YouTube videos are drawing many views from outside the congregation, which she called “the bright side to this sad situation.” The church’s Facebook page is also getting more hits and “likes” in response to an added number of posts.

In place of the hand-washing ceremony offered by deacons at the church door, symbolizing Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, the Easter video will include images from last year, connecting with the current COVID-19 defense of frequent hand-washing, Alloway said.

A large cross wrapped in chicken wire will be on the Church of the Roses lawn Sunday, allowing people to place flowers there, one at a time, she said.

The Rev. Stephen Shaver, rector at the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa, said the shadow of a plague has made for “a very different “ Easter season.

“I think we’ve felt very much connected with the sorrow and suffering of our world while commemorating the suffering of Jesus through Holy Week and Good Friday,” he said. “And we’re holding onto the Easter hope of love and life triumphant over evil and death.”

The Episcopal congregation occupies a landmark wooden building in downtown Santa Rosa, originally constructed in 1873 and the oldest church structure in continuous use in the city.

In step with modern times, the church is celebrating all services over Zoom, the video platform gaining popularity for business and social connections.

Shaver leads them from home, in what he describes as “a simple prayer space” in his garage, with Deacon Pamela Moore, the church organist and lay ministers contributing parts from their homes.

There have been “some hiccups with the technology,” he said, “but in general it’s been a profound experience to see the mosaic of everyone’s faces as we pray and sing together.”

The Center for Spiritual Living in Santa Rosa, adhering to the stay-at-home order while catering to varying online media preferences, is offering services on several platforms, including Facebook Live, YouTube, Vimeo and their website.

Participants in each service prepare their part - music, prayer or announcement - on their cellphones and the individual pieces are assembled for Sunday celebrations by the congregation that borrows freely from many faiths and is averse to dogma.

“April is a month of spiritual opportunities to deepen faith,” said Edward Viljoen, the senior minister.

Passover, the Jewish holiday that he calls “the timeless story of the journey to freedom,” and Easter, “the moment of resurrection” both often take place in April.

Whether a person is Christian, Jewish, a Religious Scientist like him or “something other,” Viljoen said those stories, “as well as the birthing of spring in nature, can be metaphors for us, encouraging us to trust that everything passes, and that after every period of darkness there is a beginning.”

Brenda and Don Kobrin of Larkfield are prayer practitioners at the center, offering one-on-one sessions with members following services, helping them pray for “whatever they want more of: peace of mind, safety, harmony, prosperity, release of anxiety or worry,” she said.

The service, also offered by other members, is now available in private Zoom breakout rooms, Brenda Kobrin said.

“For me, Easter represents a time of renewal and hope,” she said. “It comes in the spring at a time when the Earth is showing signs of renewal everywhere and reminding us that life naturally refreshes itself. Knowing that brings a sense of joy and peace.”

That sense is no less true under the strictures of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kobrin, who has two granddaughters and a great-granddaughter.

She will miss the usual family gatherings, but an Easter without distractions, she said, “perhaps gives us an even greater opportunity to meditate on the deeper meaning behind the holiday.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.