Easter Services Go On…Differently

“Wow, what a day. I never thought in all my life we’d share Easter apart.”

An emotional Cookeville First Baptist Church Pastor Scott McKinney began his Easter Sermon Sunday morning in front of an empty sanctuary.

“I really miss the church coming together,” McKinney said.

A 2018 national survey found more than half of Americans planned to attend Easter services. But COVID-19 kept most churches quiet Sunday. The worship, however, continued.

“Though we find ourselves living in a time in which we can relate back to that first Easter when the disciples and so many were locked away in their homes out of fear,” Rev. James Harris of United Church Of Cookeville. “And like them we find ourselves…locked away from one another out of fear, out of a pandemic, it is still a joy to come together through the airwaves,”

Washington Avenue Baptist Church Pastor Mark Gaw said the events of the last four weeks have changed a lot about Easter. No egg hunts. No new clothes. No once-a-year church attendance.

“One thing cannot be stripped from us,” Gaw said. “The meaning of Easter. The resurrection of Christ, what Christ did.”

First Presbyterian Church Pastor Mike McLaughlin said make Easter Sunday a day you give to others at a time when love is so needed.

“Today is the day you can stop counting your losses,” McLaughlin said. “For today is a day we believe in miracles.”