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Post by M. Hawbaker on Mar 23, 2021 18:06:07 GMT
When churches first shut down for the pandemic, many Christians hoped they would be back together within weeks for Easter. A year later, the holiday will be the first time more than half of evangelicals in the US plan to return to worship in person, according to a Pew Research Center report out Monday.
Even though most churches have reopened, the proclamation that “He is risen indeed” will be quieter than normal years, with sparser holiday crowds (and mask requirements muffling their voices). Among all American Christians, 39 percent say they plan to celebrate Resurrection Sunday in person, compared to 62 percent during a typical year.
Evangelical Protestants are more likely than any other Christian group to say they’ll be in church on Easter this year (52%). For many congregations, last year’s socially distant drive-up worship will be replaced by traditional sunrise services and egg hunts.
Easter is typically one of the most-attended weekends on the church calendar, and this year pastors anticipate that many Christians will want to get back to the familiar celebrations within their communities of faith.
But certain Christian traditions are holding out a little longer. Just 36 percent of Catholics and 27 percent of mainline Protestants say they’ll return for Easter, Pew found. Though historically black Protestants typically rank among evangelicals for the highest levels of Easter attendance, fewer than a third (31%) say they will attend services this year.
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Post by barb43 on Apr 7, 2021 18:13:36 GMT
Have you seen any statistics on in-person church attendance for Easter or Passover?
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Post by M. Hawbaker on Apr 7, 2021 19:10:39 GMT
Have you seen any statistics on in-person church attendance for Easter or Passover? No I haven't seen anything much about that surprisingly, but I can tell you that my church had the best in person attendance in a long time over the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services.
Of course, our regular attendance had already been steadily growing for a while now as we were one of the first churches in the area to begin meeting in person again.
We even needed to add another service to the regular Sunday schedule starting a month or so back.
We also seem to be attracting a fair number of new people specifically because we don't strictly enforce the governor's mandatory mask mandate except at the one service that is set aside just for high risk individuals who still want to attend worship in person.
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Post by barb43 on Apr 7, 2021 20:44:50 GMT
I think that's great that your church is growing the way it is! A couple of the elderly ladies in the real estate community here each reported on facebook that they attended in-person services on Easter Sunday and how nice that was. They're both vaccinated, and spend a lot of time with family members. The one lady commented that she'll probably continue to watch the livestreamed service on Sundays because she doesn't feel a need to be there in-person on a regular basis. I haven't heard anything around here. The main downtown Southern Baptist Church has a televised service & I can see, if I watch parts of it, that some number of people are there, but not a lot. I'm not sure whether the choir portion is pre-recorded or live.  |
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Post by barb43 on Apr 8, 2021 3:10:13 GMT
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Post by M. Hawbaker on Apr 8, 2021 7:04:28 GMT
That article seems about right.
Around here, the few churches that are open fully seem to be doing pretty well; but most are still either closed or operating under extreme restrictions.
I also notice that most of the ones here that are fully open tend to also be the ones that are more conservative in their Christian worldview while the more liberal and "progressive" ones tend to be completely sold out on the Covid fear mongering.
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Post by barb43 on Apr 8, 2021 13:26:04 GMT
!I also notice that most of the ones here that are fully open tend to also be the ones that are more conservative in their Christian worldview while the more liberal and "progressive" ones tend to be completely sold out on the Covid fear mongering. Sad! .... But I suppose it shouldn't really surprise me. |
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