by Cyd Delley and Turner Jones
The families, couples and individuals of Centenary Methodist Church located on 646 W 5th St in downtown Winston Salem walked up to the entrance of the sanctuary for the 11 am service Easter morning where they were met by greeters ready to lend a hand by opening the doors and providing them with hand sanitizer.
Once inside the church, worshippers were met by another group of greeters seated at a table with computers, to check them in and take their temperatures. From there, they were ushered into the sanctuary where they were required to sit socially distanced to wait for the service to begin.
Meanwhile online, worshipers prepared to celebrate Easter Sunday from the comfort of their homes.
“We wanted to allow people to celebrate whichever way they wanted, so we added another service to accommodate the crowds, and continued our live streaming service that we use every Sunday,” explained Doug Peninger representative from Centenary Methodist Church.
He also explained that 863 people tuned in to the streaming service, down from the 1,908 people that attended online last Easter. The decline in attendance is probably due to the lifted COVID restrictions which have allowed in person services since March 7th, 2021.
The church held three services this year on Easter Sunday, at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. the only service that was live streamed, and a special 1 p.m. service created just for Easter.
Due to United Methodist Conference regulations, Centenary Methodist Church closed its doors on March 15, 2020. The church had been doing online worship services for three years, so it was not hard to transfer to online streaming.
“We kept the people in the building to a stark minimum, only ten people. We had a couple of worship singers, a few members for the band, a few crew and our pastor,” said Peninger. Throughout the pandemic the church averaged about 850 views per Sunday.
Other churches downtown are grappling with COVID in different ways. Like churches around the United States, the churches in downtown Winston-Salem have adapted their services to be outdoors, online, and some have already returned to in-in person worship. No matter how they chose to gather, this was the second Easter Sunday in a row that has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heard it Here looked into what each of the currently active churches downtown are doing for Sunday worship services. Below you will find a listing of churches and their current Sunday morning activities:
Augsburg Lutheran Church
All services are virtual and pre-recorded. They are available on sunday mornings here: https://augsburglutheran-ws.org/worship/
Calvary Moravian Church
Live, virtual services are streamed every Sunday at 11:00 AM. You can find the livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTT0kZU9wX6R1CYPG2FGlXA/live
Centenary United Methodist Church
There is an in-person service at 11:00 AM. Registration is required and COVID-19 protocols are in place. The services are also available via live streaming. You can register to attend or watch the livestream here: https://www.centenary-ws.org/worship-services
First Baptist Church on Fifth
All services are virtual and live streamed over the church’s Facebook found here: https://www.facebook.com/FirstonFifth/
First Presbyterian Church
In-person services are Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM with COVID-19 protocols in place. Registration is required and can be found here: https://1stpres.tpsdb.com/OnlineReg/307. Services are also available via Facebook livestream and can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/FirstPresbyterianChurchWinstonSalemNC/featured.
Goler Memorial AME Zion Church
Virtual services are held at 11:00 AM via Facebook livestream found here: https://www.facebook.com/golermemorial1918/
Home Moravian Church
Currently, services are remaining virtual, however, the church is in the process of polling the congregation on a return to in-person services. The virtual services are live streamed at 10:00 AM. The livestream can be accessed here: https://www.homemoravian.org/~homemora/index.php/footer/resources/broadcast/live-broadcasts/
Lloyd Presbyterian Church
Services are taking place in-person at 11:30 AM with COVID-19 protocols in place.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
In-person services are taking place indoors at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 5:00 PM and outdoors at 3:00 PM. Registration is required for the indoor services. To register call (336) 749-4906. COVID-19 safety protocols are in place at all in-person services. The 10:00 AM services can also be accessed via livestream found here: https://vimeo.com/stpaulswinstonsalem.
United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church
Services are held virtually via livestream at 11:00 AM. The livestream can be accessed here: https://vimeo.com/user23980379
