WASHINGTON – Today is the second Easter celebrated in the time of COVID-19 and, aside from vaccinations and optimism, things have not yet returned to normal in most houses of worship.
In the past year, the pandemic has changed the way Americans worship and other data show that religious affiliation itself is undergoing rapid changes. So on this holy day for Christians, downloading data takes a look at church and faith in America.
Starting with worship directly linked to today, how do the banks look this Sunday compared to a normal Easter? They were set to be less crowded than normal, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
The Pew survey, conducted just a few weeks ago in early March, showed that 27 percent of American adults were planning to go to church in person this year. If the year was normal, 44% of this group said they would attend Easter services.
That is a big difference, a drop of 17 points, which means that there should be more room for social detachment in most churches this year.
And it’s a reminder of how Covid’s control over the country is still. Every Sunday is important to Christians, of course, but Easter is a special case – one in which even less frequent churchgoers. This fall shows that there is still a lot of concern among the faithful.
Part of that downturn may be less about the desire to attend church than about not having a church to visit physically. This same survey asked participants of the regular religious service about the current state of their congregations in relation to July. He found that more houses of worship were open, but there were still exceptions and frequency restrictions.
Since July, there has been a reduction in the number of churches with closed doors. It fell almost in half. But nearly two-thirds of these open churches require some form of Covid-19 restriction, such as social detachment, which means fewer seats are available.
Only about 1 in 10 houses of worship are open normally this Easter, according to Pew data.
Considering these numbers, what have the faithful done at designated times of worship? In the past month, many of them had services online or with the help of a television.
That still represents a third of adults who attended virtual services in the comfort of their homes in the past month. And, in contemplating Covid’s long-term impact in the country, don’t forget the role that these virtual or televised services can play in the future of worship in the United States.
This week, Gallup released data showing that the number of Americans who say they are members of a congregation has dropped to less than 50 percent for the first time in 2020.
To be clear, it is not 47% of adults who say they believe in God or even 47% of adults who say they have a religion they follow. There are 47% of those who say they are members of a specific church.
Together, the numbers raise an issue. When the “virtual services” are over and worshipers have to decide whether they want to physically return to church, what decision will they make? In a sense, it is a form of the same question we all ask about work and school.
As with other elements of society, we are in a moment of transition. And we’ll have to wait and see what Covid’s long-term impact on houses of worship will be. Next Easter, when we all expect the virus to be totally behind us, we can have a more complete picture of the pandemic’s lasting impacts on the way we love it.