Iowa churches adapted to this year’s Covid circumstances on Christmas Eve.
A few found larger parking lots for their congregations to gather in vehicles for the very local broadcast of a Christmas Eve service. The congregation of Central Presbyterian church, a few blocks from the governor’s mansion in Des Moines, gathered outside, on the church lawn. Catholic Archbishop Michael Jackels conducted a recorded service in the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque.
“Where Covid isolates people, reach out to them and when the pandemic leaves people without food or money, help out and not just in Merry Christmastime, but in March and May, too,” Jackels said in his homily.
One of Iowa’s largest churches, the Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, has its service posted online, including the Christmas message from Pastor Mike Householder.
“God is not intimidated by the darkness of 2020,” he said. “His light overwhelms it.”
Some churches held in-person services that were also livestreamed online.