TOLEDO, Ohio — In his daily briefings, Gov. Mike DeWine mentioned church services with this being a holy week.
On Easter, the majority of churches have productions that families look forward to each year. With coronavirus impacting every aspect of life, churches have had to switch gears to stay creative.
DeWine said he will not interfere with people's rights to practice religion, but where we are in the stage of the virus, it's not something we should be doing in-person.
"We can almost guarantee you that in a church, even not a very large church. There will be people who would test positive who already have it, they may not know it," DeWine said.
He said if we attend service in-person, we're playing with the lives of our congregation and local church leaders agree with him.
"As a priest, as someone that works in a few parishes, and is deeply connected there. This is what I think we need to be doing," St. John's XXIII Priest, Father Geoff Rose said.
Father Rose said it's heartbreaking for them not to be together at service. Thankfully, his parish has had an online presence.
That means their Easter service can be the same, just without any people and that's the biggest transition.
"When I'm preaching I'm used to preaching to a large audience, which gives you feedback. They may laugh, they may boo you for a bad joke or whatever. There's that interaction and it's not there and so you have to really picture it," Father Rose said.
This week is historic for believers. Father Rose said adding what the community is going through with the coronavirus is an opportunity to do something unique and we should all think of it that way.