A COVID Christmas: Suburban churches keep traditions alive

Christmas car caravans. Live nativities with masked volunteers performing to socially distanced audiences. Virtual and drive-in religious services.

Suburban Christian congregations are adapting yuletide festivities this year due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on gatherings and traditional holiday activities. Some churches are taking reservations for congregants to attend services in smaller groups. Others are finding new ways to connect with their homebound faithful.

"We're doing a lot of things that are different," said the Rev. John Trout, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Libertyville.

The parish will have drive-in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Masses. Trout will deliver the sermon from a specially constructed treehouse pulpit - a large elevated structure in the parking lot with Plexiglass encompassing the altar.

The church follows stringent protocols set by the Archdiocese of Chicago for resuming Masses. Its service will be broadcast over the radio while parishioners remain seated in their cars. A priest wearing a face shield and mask will distribute communion to parishioners after both sanitize their hands.

"Our priority is keeping everyone safe," Trout said. "Since we were allowed to reopen (in June), 28,000 people have (had) in-person worship at Mass without incident. Our system has been copied and many diocese have got in touch with us."

Arlington Heights

St. Edna Parish in Arlington Heights is among several congregations taking reservations for Christmas Masses to limit crowds. The church also is having earlier and multiple services, and will stream a prerecorded Mass on Christmas Eve.

This month, volunteer families manned tent stations in the church's parking lot depicting Nativity scenes for Advent season. Parishioners drove through to view the displays and received prepackaged candy canes and do-it-yourself ornaments.

"They can return (the ornaments) to put on a designated tree outside the church," said Heather Daudelin, director of religious education. "That is going to be our parish community family tree for the holidays. Our whole parish has been decorated in lights. We are emphasizing the outside of our parish being a natural church this year. Even though (parishioners) cannot be with their personal families, they can be with their church families and enjoy the holidays that way."

Aurora

Faith Lutheran Church in Aurora hosted its annual outdoor live nativity Saturday featuring actors who were socially distant and masked. The performance included a large cast of actors and animals, a choir, and scenery spread out across the church's lawn. Each scene was played by members of the same family grouped together for additional safety. The event was livestreamed on the church website.

Lead Pastor Rob Douglas anticipates Christmas services will be held online. A team of volunteers will bake bread for communion gift bags that will be delivered to members' homes on Christmas Eve. It will include grape juice boxes, wafers, candles and devotionals for families to partake in during livestreamed services.

"It's really what Christmas is all about ... it's been a challenge with COVID where people feel less connected and isolated," Douglas said. "Nothing can really replace that in-person experience of community, but all of us have figured out how to adapt and be creative during this time."

Des Plaines

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, officials have been discouraging crowds from gathering by moving the image of the lady from its niche and placing it inside a chapel for the season.

The shrine - a revered pilgrimage site for Catholics - typically draws more than 200,000 visitors for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was canceled this year. Instead, officials urged worshippers to submit photos of their prayer altars at home, which are displayed on the shrine's Facebook page.

"We are going to be praying with them online," said the Rev. Esequiel Sanchez, rector of the shrine. For Christmas Eve, the shrine will hold a midnight Mass for a limited crowd and services will be livestreamed, he added.

Glenview

Glenview Community Church, which has put on an elaborate Christmas pageant for 70 years, recorded and released it Sunday on its YouTube channel. It features popular Christmas songs, costumes, and dancing by the church's children and youth.

The church will allow limited in-person seating for Christmas Eve services, which also will be livestreamed with the recording available for viewing afterward.

Mundelein

Seminarians studying at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein Seminary typically perform an annual Christmas concert for the public, but the performance will be virtual this year.

"That is one of our more popular events," said Matt Paolelli, seminary spokesman. "People who come every year have been coming for decades."

Seminarians returned to parishes in their home dioceses after Thanksgiving to finish the semester online. They recorded the concert before leaving campus, socially distanced in the main chapel. It features religious carols and is available on the seminary's Facebook page.

"A lot of churches and even the Archdiocese have canceled their Christmas concerts, so I think we are one of the only games in town," Paolelli said.

St. Charles

Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles was among three Fox Valley churches that hosted a drive-through "Christmas Story Caravan" this month, handing out luminary kits and ornaments for a prayer tree.

"We traditionally have a tree on our front lawn where we have members of our community write prayers on ornaments," Senior Pastor Mary Zajac said. "We've got 100 ornaments on the tree right now. It's meant to be outreach ... (a) comfort for people of any faith tradition."

The church invited congregants to submit videos of themselves singing "Silent Night," which a student member will stitch together into a recording to be shared as part of a Facebook Live event on Christmas Eve.

"2020 has got enough challenge and sadness. We need some joy," Zajac said. "We need some things that are cherished memories of these times, not just sad memories. There are blessings in the midst of the pain and that is really the message of Christmas - the blessing in the midst of darkness."