The Rev. Mark Rollenhagen, the pastor of Waukegan’s St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, received an inkling of what a nearly full church will be like on Easter when congregants knelt in front of him for Communion on Palm Sunday for the first time in two years.
“We offered Communion at the rail for the first time since the (coronavirus) pandemic started,” Rollenhagen said. “You could see in their eyes how grateful they were. It gave us hope. We were together again in person. That’s joy.”
A year ago, Rollenhagen said sunrise services for Easter took place at Waukegan’s beach, and the other two services were held in the church parking lot.
Waukegan pastors anticipate crowds close to pre-pandemic levels in church Sunday for Easter as restrictions imposed by COVID-19 are nearly gone and parishioners become more comfortable at large gatherings.
While services were in person a year ago at Most Blessed Trinity Catholic Parish’s churches — Immaculate Conception Church, Holy Family Church and Queen of Peace Church — Father Timothy J. O’Malley said the crowds will be large.
“It will be packed,” O’Malley said. “It’s been pretty much like that since a week before Lent began, especially at our Spanish Masses. Some people still wear masks, but they’re glad to be there.”
While services were held inside at Christ Episcopal Church in Waukegan in 2021, the Rev. Jean Beniste said he is expecting a much larger crowd this year in part because people feel less of a threat from COVID-19, and also because of growing spiritual needs.
“People are searching for community,” Beniste said. “It is a restorative feeling. After two years of the pandemic, people want to be together. People feel they need it.”
The Rev. John Caples, the pastor at Jesus Name Apostolic Church in Waukegan, said after prerecorded online services two years ago and around 150 people in church last year, he anticipates a crowd of approximately 500 Sunday.
Before the pandemic changed church attendance, Caples said Easter services could draw 900 to 1,000 people. Some individuals remain cautious. Masks will be required when congregants walk into the church, but they can remove them when they get to their seats.
Caples said this year his message will be one of transformation, moving from dealing with needs of the body like food, to feeding the mind because, unlike other animals humans can think, to the spiritual.
“We are made in the image of God,” Caples said. “How do I know it? Because I believe. If I know and believe, I am transformed.”
O’Malley said this year his message will be one of peace, and praying for peace and healing, primarily because of the current war in Ukraine. Conditions around the world worry him, and he believes peace is needed more than ever.
“We’re going to keep praying for peace; peace for the people of Ukraine.” O’Malley said. “I’m very afraid for our world today. I’m worried about Taiwan. I believe Jesus would be thankful for those prayers.”
Beniste said his message Sunday will be about the journey the congregation has taken since he arrived in February 2020, a month before everything shut down because of the pandemic. His congregation became accustomed to praying in a different way. It has continually improved.
“Jesus called on us to make a journey with him that started in darkness and ended in light, hallelujah,” Beniste said. “We have survived, and we’re still here.”
Rollenhagen said his message will be about new life and new hope in light of the past two years. Gathering in a spiritual setting is an important part of that.
“Being together is important as life goes on,” he said.
Many things at St. Paul’s are returning to the way they were before the pandemic, like the Palm Parade on Palm Sunday last week. Rollenhagen said some innovations brought on by COVID-19 may remain, like the sunrise service at the beach.
“Easter is about new life and new beginnings,” he said. “Seeing the sun rise out of the Lake Michigan horizon symbolizes that in a way you can’t inside a building.”
While the beach service may well remain, Rollenhagen said it was good to see the return of the Palm Parade, where the congregation’s children walk through the sanctuary with palm leaves.
“It was so good to call the kids up,” he said.
