Houses of worship rebuild after pandemic

The World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was no longer a health emergency on May 5, ending more than three years of cautionary protocols, including social distancing.

The pandemic had a huge impact on a number of institutions. Among them were worship communities of all religions and denominations. After all, what happens to a congregation when they cannot congregate?

In April, three Catholic churches shared their stories about how the pandemic impacted their parishes, but Catholic congregations were not the only ones affected by the health crisis.

From a rebooted and rebranded shul to a Presbyterian church without a pastor, stories continue to emerge about how faith, love and technology bring people together in worship.

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In West Milford, the Almond Branch Church and Resource Center is going strong, thanks to its use of technology before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lead Pastor Nick Padovani said the church is thriving, and technology is a mainstay of their ministry.

“We can connect to a lot more people because of our Facebook Live and YouTube services,” he said, “For us, it was like, if the big megachurches can do it, why can’t we?”

The non-denominational new evangelical church did, like all houses of worship, have to shut its physical doors for a time in 2020, and it was then that it lost some older congregants, Padovani said.

“But then we brought in new people online,” he said. “It balances out.”

Even before COVID-19, the chruch had seen a declining trend in attendance and took action to build ministries to attract younger members, Padovani said.

“We have an awesome children’s ministry for families. It was all about putting the right people in the right place. We also had to wonder where our older members had gone. Did COVID chase them away for good? Where is Gen X?”

To minister to people of all ages, the church holds Sunday School and clubs for children and in-person fellowship meetings for men and women, along with Facebook groups for those adults, encouraging in-person and virtual interaction.

In addition, the church’s website and social media pages have videos, resources and study materials for people to learn and grow in their faith from the comfort of their homes.

It even has a free app, which was available before the pandemic, for both Android and Apple platforms, where people can listen, watch and learn about the church’s teachings, including archived sermons and a regular podcast.

“Think about how the word of God was first spread to the masses,” Padovani said. “The technology of the Gutenberg printing press made the Bible accessible to so many people who didn’t have access before. That’s how we think about what we’re doing. We’re just using the technology of our time.”

Leaning on each other

At the historic First Presbyterian Church of Sussex, the pandemic wasn’t the only challenge that the congregation faced in 2020.

“Our pastor, Reverend Amy Lawrence, set up a Zoom account for us immediately upon learning we couldn’t have people gather in the church building,” said church elder Michael Kosco. “But like many churches, the majority of our members are older, which meant they were unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the internet and computer technology.”

The church spread the word via phone and email and was able to have an online service the first week that indoor gatherings were prohibited, with only the pastor and the organist in the sanctuary, using a laptop camera.

“And it worked,” Kosco said. “In fact, people were so pleased with being able to see each other on the computer that the church set up virtual ‘hang-out with friends’ time on Zoom where twice a week people could check in with each other face-to-face, and we continued that into the autumn.”

While the online services may have been a great success with a pastor to lead them, Lawrence felt compelled to leave the congregation in June 2020 to be closer to family, with no successor in place.

“That’s where it got unique,” Kosco said. “For the next seven months, we kept things going. About a third of the time, we brought in guest ministers or elders to come to preach from our pulpit. For the other two-thirds, we had several members of our congregation rotate and lead the worship service, sharing their own prayers and sermons, all through Zoom and a laptop camera in the church. One of our elders made PowerPoint slides of unison prayers and hymn lyrics so everyone could participate at home.”

The church worked closely with the Presbytery to re-open the building to congregants, and slowly but surely, they made their case. People began to gather again that fall, with strict social distancing and mask protocols in place.

Still, they had no pastor. After what Kosco called “persistent lobbying,” a new pastor was appointed in June 2021. The Rev. Katherine Scott-Kirschner, who was laid off from her previous assistant pastorship because of the pandemic, came to Sussex and quickly found herself at home.

The church continues to use Zoom as a tool for live services, and Scott-Kirschner uploads them all to Facebook and YouTube for people to watch and re-watch at their convenience. Along with the PowerPoint slides and hymns, people now can worship in Sussex from wherever they are in the world.

“We might have closed our doors (in 2020), but we never stopped worshipping together. We even found single-serve communion that we used for over a year,” Kosco said. “They looked like the coffee creamers you get at a diner but held a wafer and juice. It’s just one of the ways we adapted to the circumstances.”

Even though the First Presbyterian Church is back to in-person worship under its new pastor, Kosco doesn’t think the online services will be discontinued soon.

“It’s become a great tool, and I’m happy that those of us who are computer-challenged have gotten used to it,” he said, “It helped people here realize that we’re important to each other, this community connection.

“Personally, I think people clung more to their faith during the COVID crisis. Faith is different for every individual, but one thing I remember is that sometime in 2020, when we were without a pastor, looking at all the faces on Zoom and thinking, ‘It’s the same people; this must be really important to them, we have to keep going,’ and I’m glad we all did.”

Sharing pastors

Sussex’s Presbyterian congregation isn’t the only one that has experienced a lack of pastoral leadership. Many Presbyterian churches find themselves in a “pastor sharing” situation because of a shortage of qualified ministers.

As far back as 2010, Presbyterian Church USA, the country’s largest Presbyterian denomination, indicated that fewer than 10 percent of the seminary graduates were open to serving churches with less than 100 members, foreshadowing “staffing issues” for small congregations nationwide.

Locally, one pastor has been shared between two congregations for more than a decade. In a shuffle of duties, he has left one and joined another, leaving him still to shoulder the responsibility of two congregations.

The Rev. Chris Doyle will remain the leader of the Oak Ridge Presbyterian Church and take over the pastorship of the West Milford Presbyterian Church. He leaves the Berkshire Valley Presbyterian Church in Wharton.

Doyle is cheerful about his dual role, but while he may be no stranger to having two congregations to care for, church leadership sees the declining trend of both registered membership and qualified ministers as a concern.

According to their annual statistic report published May 1, the same day that Doyle officially entered into his shared pastoral agreement with West Milford, Presbyterian Church USA noted 285 fewer ministers and more than 53,000 fewer members between 2021 and 2022. Slightly more than two-thirds of Presbyterian Church USA churches have 100 or fewer members, the number noted as undesirable to new ministers in 2010.

In a press release that accompanied the report, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), said, “We are not surprised by the numbers we are seeing. While the pandemic may be over, the impact on church membership is still being felt.”

Doyle believes that the ministries of both West Milford and Oak Ridge Presbyterian Church are strong, and the use of technology, such as Zoom and Facebook, for services, weekly bible study and a social media presence can keep the congregations thriving.

Oak Ridge also holds open-air services in the outdoor chapel, weather permitting, which was a boon during the pandemic.

To accommodate his move to West Milford, Doyle will hold Sunday services at 9 a.m. at that church, while services will be held at 11 a.m. in Oak Ridge. The pastor also has office hours at both locations and will continue to lead Monday Bible study online for not just congregants of his churches but for “anyone from anywhere” who wishes to join.

New name, full calendar

As Tepper Saffren, executive director of the B’nai Torah Shul in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., describes it, COVID-19 was almost a “three strikes and you’re out” situation for the small congregation, which was originally built as a summer synagogue in the mid-1950s.

“The synagogue was founded with 100 families around the summer lake community, and it was a bustling place,” he said. “There was joy and celebration here, with lots of activities, even a speakeasy.”

That went up in literal smoke in 2004, when the synagogue was a total loss after an accidental fire. That was strike one, and in the four years it took to rebuild the sanctuary, congregants left in droves. That was strike two.

“Strike three? COVID. Bam! They had to shut the doors,” Saffren said, “They were in trouble.”

He wasn’t even a member of the congregation when the pandemic began, only coming to Greenwood Lake and seeking a new spiritual home in 2021.

“This place seemed so perfect,” he said. “It’s walking distance for most of the community, which is helpful when we don’t drive during Shabbat, and the board had decided to wave the dues system during the pandemic, which helped some people. But there was nothing going on here.”

With congregant numbers trending down and secularism on the rise, the synagogue was running out of money and out of time. He took the leap, joined the ailing house of worship and has been instrumental in turning things around.

“We’re creating an environment of love, trust and non-judgment where Jewish and non-Jewish people alike can all come and walk a spiritual path.”

Along with offering Shabbat services online, including a timer system to shut off the livestream once the service has ended, Saffren has helped institute a lively calendar of events for the congregation and the community.

“The beauty of Judaism is that it’s a rich cultural and religious philosophy that’s been kept alive for thousands of years,” he said, “And what we’re doing here? People are digging it.”

Saffren’s joy is infectious as he talks about movie nights, musical programming, community meals and special events commemorating the Jewish holidays. The laws of Judaism - the tenets that all faithful Jews follow to bring them closer to God - are what’s allowed the religion to survive for so many centuries, he said, but modern labels on Judaism can cause a divide.

“This used to be a Conservative synagogue, which is moderate, between Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism, but people tended to interpret it in so many ways that now, we’ve become a non-denominational congregation. But then, we needed a name change to reflect our new direction.”

That’s how Congregation B’nai Torah became the B’nai Torah Shul.

“Shul is a Yiddish word that means ‘house of learning’ because that’s what we are and what we want to be moving forward,” he explained.

Between the removal of a denomination, the name change and the full calendar, B’nai Torah Shul is a new incarnation of the founding synagogue, and the numbers don’t lie.

“In 2022, we had 14 people attend our Passover Seder,” Saffren said. “And in 2023, that went up to 48. That’s tremendous!”

B’nai Torah Shul is also gearing up to reconvene Hebrew School and resume Bar and Bat Mitzvah training. It is seeking interested students to participate in one-on-one mentorship with learning partners to study Jewish philosophy and theology.

Saffren said the online services will continue for the foreseeable future, even as the COVID-19 health crisis winds down.

“We’ll continue using it for people who can’t make it to services or who may have moved. People who are on vacation like to Zoom in, too,” he said. “And we’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing (with events and education). I think if we keep doing good work, it’ll support us as we go.”

Saffren reiterated that people of all religions and spirituality are welcome at B’nai Torah Shul.

“We have a wonderful atmosphere. Everybody has a role, everyone can find a part to play, and nobody is excluded. If you’re feeling lost, we have a home for you here.”