Christians around the world celebrate digital Easter

In an unprecedented Easter Sunday,
millions of Christians worldwide are
marking the holy day by tuning in to digital
church services from their homes.
Coronavirus has forced large parts of the
world into lockdown, including India and
much of Europe.
Despite the importance of Easter Sunday in
the Christian calendar, churches in the UK
are shuttered, even for private prayer.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is to lead the
Church of England’s first ever nationwide
virtual Easter Sunday service at 9am, in
which he will speak about hope in the “dark
days” of the coronavirus pandemic.
“So many people right across the country
are anxious about employment, food, are
isolated from loved ones and feel that the
future looks dark. People right across the
globe feel the same uncertainty, fear,
despair and isolation. But you are not
alone,” he will say.
“In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we
have a hope that is surer than stone; than
any architecture,” he will say. “Even in the
dark days of this Easter we can feed on
hope. We can dream of what our country
and our world will look like after the
pandemic.”
There are other digital initiatives taking
place to mark the occasion, too, with the
Methodist Church hosting an Easter
Sunday ‘Sing-A-Long’ live on
Facebook and YouTube at 4pm. It will be
joined by the National Methodist Choir GB
and members of All We Can, the Church’s
humanitarian ministry.
Easter Sunday services are to be broadcast
live from Wesley’s Chapel in London
via YouTube , with a Service of Holy
Communion at 9:45am, Morning Worship
from 11:00am to 12:15pm, and an
International Prayer Service in the Taize
style from 7:00pm to 8:00pm.
The worldwide Anglican Communion has
coordinated a social media campaign using
the hashtag #GlobalSonRise social media
campaign. Easter video messages have
been shared from many parts of the world,
while on Sunday morning, Anglicans were
being asked to tweet “Christ is Risen” at
5am in their local time zones.
Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB)
General Secretary Lynn Green will lead a
national prayer broadcast on Easter
Sunday with special guests Nick and
Marjorie Allan, from The Well in Sheffield,
at 7pm. Baptist minister Andy Goodliff has
also produced a series of Easter reflections
for the BUGB.
The coronavirus lockdown has forced
churches around the world to be creative in
how they continue to worship.
In Achern, Germany, one pastor asked
members of his congregation to send him
pictures of themselves. Joachim Giesler,
priest at the Parish Church of our Lady,
has attached these pictures to the pews as
a powerful reminder of parishioners in their
absence during the lockdown.