In divergent Easter celebrations, prayers for virus victims — PHOTOS

A church goer wears protective gloves and a face mask as she attends an Easter services in the parking lot of Bethany United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Many churches are adapting their services as Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Lou Mills directs traffic as worshipers arrive for a drive-in Easter service at Jenkins Cumberland Presbyterian Church Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Nolensville, Tenn. The service, which was also streamed on the internet, was held to give people a chance to attend together during the coronavirus outbreak, even if they had to keep their distance by staying in their cars. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, far right, holds up a communion wafer to a National Cathedral empty of parishioners, during an Easter Sunday service broadcast via livestream due to coronavirus precautions, Sunday, April 12, 2020, at the National Cathedral in Washington. The large Cathedral would normally be full on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Choir conductor Michael Kleinschmidt leads the small group in rehearsal before a live streamed Easter service at Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Seattle. Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance, with many churches closed and family gatherings canceled amid wide-ranging shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Rose Cortez, left, wears protective gloves and a face mask as she passes out communion packets during an Easter services in the parking lot of Bethany United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Many churches are adapting their services as Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Pastor Les Hollon, right, holds an online Easter service at Trinity Baptist Church with a small group of musicians and no people present in San Antonio, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Many churches are adapting their services as Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Rev. William Schipper, pastor of Mary, Queen of the Rosary Parish, right, wears a mask and gloves out of concern for the coronavirus as he sprinkles holy water and blesses parishioners who assisted in directing vehicles, handing out bottles of holy water and gift packets in the parking lot of the church, on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Spencer, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In this Saturday, April 11, 2020 photograph, a woman wearing a protective face mask stands near a fire lit next to her brother's grave in a cemetery in Herasti, Romania, during a Orthodox Palm Sunday memorial for the departed. The cemetery, usually crowded for the Palm Sunday ritual, which gathers believers before midnight to light fires at the graves and share food in memory of their dead relatives, was all but empty as people observed the interdiction to join religious celebrations in the week leading to the Orthodox Easter imposed across Romania as authorities try to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

In this April 1, 2020 photo, Betsy and David Sheen are joined by their dogs as they walk up their driveway after getting the mail at their home in Bowdoinham, Maine. The driveway walks help them to get exercise while dealing with the isolation brought on by the coronavirus. Rural states with older populations like Maine are facing special problems in dealing with the emotional and physical toll of isolation. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Terry Sartain prays inside his car during Relevant Church's Easter service at a YMCA parking lot in Clover, S.C., Saturday, April 11, 2020. The coronavirus has pushed the members of the church out of their usual church setting. The weather forecast for Sunday impelled the church to hold its Easter Sunday service Saturday. (AP Photo/Sarah Blake Morgan)

Victoria Cornell waves her arms in prayer during a drive in Easter service Sunday, April 12, 2020, at the Happy Gospel Center Church in Bradenton, Fla. The outdoor service was an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

People gather at the Mount Davidson cross in San Francisco, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Mount Davidson's annual Easter Sunrise Service was canceled for San Francisco's shelter in place orders over coronavirus concers. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, at left, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of Washington National Cathedral, right, await their signal to begin a livestreamed Easter Sunday service at the National Cathedral with no parishioners, Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Washington, in light of coronavirus pandemic precautions. The large Cathedral would normally be full on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Rev. William Schipper, pastor of Mary, Queen of the Rosary Parish, center, wears a mask and gloves out of concern for the coronavirus as he sprinkles holy water and blesses parishioners who remain in their vehicles in the parking lot of the church on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Spencer, Mass. Altar server Laurie Zukowski, right, passes out holy water and an Easter gift packet to a parishioner through the window of a vehicle. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Christians around the world celebrated an Easter Sunday upended by the coronavirus without the usual crowded church Masses and large family gatherings. Instead, they turned to the internet, television and radio from home to follow services that noted the grave impact of the pandemic. Some found novel ways to mark the holy day. Others still assembled in groups, but took precautions to try to avoid infection.

The virus forced a change in Easter traditions that had even endured wars. Christians in the U.S. contended with a patchwork of limits on how and where they could gather to mark Jesus’ resurrection. Many states exempted houses of worship from orders curbing communal meetings to help stop the coronavirus from spreading. A few pastors said they would stay open to visitors despite pandemic-fighting guidelines.

But no matter how divergent the celebrations, the message from church leaders around the world remained consistent: prayers for the sick and dead and reassurances of God’s presence.

Here’s a sample of Easter events from the U.S. and abroad:

New York City

Parishioners from churches across New York City sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” from their balconies and windows as part of an initiative organized online.

“My husband and I went out on the balcony and we belted it out as loud as we could,” said Kathy Keller, of Reedemer Presbyterian Church, who helped launch the ‘Easter2020’ singing event.

Keller said people from across the U.S. sent her messages telling her they had joined the event, including a woman in Denver, Colorado who sang while snow fell outside her window.

“Even if you didn’t hear everyone, God heard everyone,” Keller said.

— By Luis Andres Henao

Germany

In the central German city of Hildesheim, around 400 people participated in a drive-in Catholic Mass for Easter Sunday. People were allowed to take part if they stayed in their cars with the doors and windows closed, listening to the sermon over the radio.

Relevant Church in the U.S. state of South Carolina also held a drive-in service, but took the additional step of changing it to Saturday because of an expected storm. Gloved volunteers carefully distributed prepackaged communion packets to families who drove into the YMCA parking lot. While Pastor Matt McGarity preached from the New Testament, cars sporadically honked in agreement. “We felt tonight like we would any Easter morning: joyful, expectant, hopeful,” parishioner Kelly Hills said.

— By Geir Moulson and Sarah Blake Morgan

South Korea

At one of the biggest churches in South Korea, Seoul’s Yoido Full Gospel Church, a small number of masked church followers attended the service broadcast online via the church’s website. They were seated noticeably apart from each other to abide by social distancing rules. Choir members also wore masks when they sang hymns.

People also gathered at Happy Gospel Church in the U.S. state of Florida, though they were in the parking lot. Some sat in lawn chairs or on tailgates, but families stayed at least 6 feet apart – even when Bailey did an altar call.

— By Hyung-jin Kim and Terry Spencer

Vatican

At the Vatican, St. Peter’s Square was empty of crowds and ringed by police barricades. Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass inside the largely vacant basilica, calling for solidarity the world over to confront the “epochal challenge” posed by the coronavirus pandemic. He offered special prayers for the sick, the dead, the elderly, refugees and the poor and assured the faithful that God was still among them. “We are convinced that he has laid his hand upon us firmly reassuring us: Do not be afraid, ’I have risen and I am with you still!”

The message was echoed by David Uth, senior pastor at First Baptist Orlando in the U.S. state of Florida. Uth told worshippers tuning in to an online Easter service that a question that comes up as the coronavirus pandemic ravages lives is: Where is God?

“He’s the same place He was the day His son died to give us salvation from our sin,” he said. “He’s the same place He was the day His son Jesus walked out of the grave. He is with us.”

— By Nicole Winfield and Mariam Fam