HOLYOKE — At a typical Christmas Mass at Blessed Sacrament Parish, all of the approximately 525 seats are filled, with another 100 people standing around the church.
This year, the parish will host a very different scene: Approximately 210 people can fit in the church under the state’s social distancing guidelines, while others are invited to tune in to an FM transmission of the services on their car radios in the parking lot.
After the Mass, those who wish to receive communion from their cars are asked to switch on their hazard lights, and Pastor Robert Gentile will come to them in the parking lot.
“Typically, in a Christmas Eve Mass, by four o’clock there are people standing all around,” Gentile said, “and we just can’t have that this year, so we tried to notify our parishioners that we need to reduce the amount of people in our church,” in addition to communicating other social distancing measures that will be in place.
Gentile is unsure how high the demand for services will be this year, noting that friends and family members of parishioners visiting from out of town contribute to the crowd at Christmas Masses, but that he expects travel to be limited this year.
But logistics aside, “the bigger challenge to me is, as a priest, I want to welcome people into church,” Gentile said. “I don’t want to count heads and discourage people from coming.”
Limitations also alter the experience for those who do manage to get a seat in the church, Gentile added.
“For me as a priest, the beauty of Christmas Mass is seeing the sheer volume of people who believe like I believe,” he said. “It reinforces my belief, as I think it reinforces the belief of those who come… so that’s going to be diminished. We’re not going to have that experienced to that degree. But I guess the encouraging thing is that even in the midst of this pandemic, there are people reaching out trying to find God.”
The First Congregational Church of Southampton has been doing its services over the videoconferencing application Zoom during the pandemic.
“Because of the pandemic, everything got changed,” said the Rev. Quentin Chin, the church’s interim pastor. “And yet we’re still trying to respond to this deep yearning and longing for tradition.”
The church is recording its Christmas service, and releasing it on the morning of Christmas Eve on its website, and emailing it to members as well. The center of this service will be a reading of the Nativity story as related in the Book of Luke by eight people, five of whom will be children.
“People will hear the Luke story, but will see eight different readers,” said Chin.
The service will also include Christmas Carols, and Chin’s reflection will be on Sandro Botticelli’s painting “The Mystical Nativity.”
Some Catholic parishes, such as Our Lady of the Cross in Holyoke and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Belchertown, are asking parishioners to make reservations in advance to ensure they have a seat at Mass.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield is “asking much of the same” of its churches in terms of social distancing guidelines this Christmas, said spokesman Mark Dupont, who noted that the diocese has been following the state’s social distancing guidelines for public worship since the services were allowed to resume in the spring.
Catholics are excused from attending services during the pandemic, Dupont said. But many parishioners still want to connect with their church communities, whether it is in person or virtually.
“Every parish is in a unique situation given the size of the church,” Dupont said, “But we’ve certainly encouraged them if they need to use additional Christmas Masses, and if they feel it’s necessary, to use a reservation system.”
Morning Star Community Baptist Church in South Hadley will be offering an in-person Christmas Eve service at 4 p.m., which will also be broadcast over Facebook.
“It’s a limited amount of folks that choose to worship (in person),” said the Rev. Paul Starnes, the church’s pastor. “The vast majority of our folks, and an increasing number of folks, watch us on Facebook.”
Starnes said he expects fewer than 30 people to attend the in-person Christmas Eve service. He said the service will feature a “little bit of preaching, a little bit of singing,” and focus on both the birth of Jesus and the significance of the church family.
“Just because we have to have social distance, doesn’t mean we can’t have an intimate relationship,” said Starnes.
While state guidelines stipulate that churches cannot exceed 40% capacity, limited space to alow for 6 feet of distance between parishioners means that many can accommodate no more than 30% of their usual capacity, according to Dupont.
To help churches add extra Masses at their parishes, Dupont said, the diocese has allowed Christmas Eve Mass to begin at 3 p.m. — an hour earlier than usual. Other churches have access to locations such as school gymnasiums or gathering halls, he said, and will use these sites to hold additional Masses concurrently with those held at the churches.
At St. Patrick’s Parish in South Hadley, a message to parishioners notes that the parish can accommodate 70 people in the church and 24 people in its chapel, in addition to 70 people in its gymnasium, where the services will be livestreamed. People can also watch from home on the church’s YouTube channel.
“Is this ideal? Absolutely not,” the Rev. James Nolte and staff members note in a message to parishioners on the church’s website. “Thanksgiving was strange and Christmas looks like it may be stranger. But the vaccines are on the way and we will come through this together.”
The Christ Community of Hampshire County will be holding a Christmas Eve Service at 6 p.m. at the banquet hall at Pilsudski Park in Holyoke, where the church has been conducting its services.
“We’ll be doing a Christmas Eve candlelight service,” said the Rev. Chad Patterson, the pastor of the church.
He said the service will feature a sermon and carols and that at its conclusion, people will sing “Silent Night” and light candles.
Patterson said that individuals and families will be keeping 6 feet apart or more and wearing masks at the service, and that there is enough room in the hall to keep people properly spaced apart. He also said that Christmas Eve services are typically smaller at Christ Community than its regular services.