With government-imposed lockdowns and self-isolation measures in place due to the coronavirus outbreak, Christians who wanted to observe Easter Sunday together found themselves challenged. Churches around the world came up with workarounds to reach out to their followers, including drive-in services, live-streamed prayers, virtual attendance, and traveling clergymen. Collected below are images from Pakistan, the United States, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Italy, and more, showing what Easter services look like during a global pandemic.
Photos: Easter Services in a Distanced World
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Peter Lando and his family take part in Easter Mass live-streamed on the television in their home from St. Mary’s Catholic Church amid the coronavirus outbreak in Carlisle, Massachusetts, on April 12, 2020. #
Brian Snyder / Reuters -
People use their phones to read the lyrics as they sing an Easter hymn on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where normally thousands of Christians would gather for worship at Easter sunrise, in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2020. #
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters -
Priest Reginaldo Manzotti of the Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe sanctuary streams his Easter Sunday service with printed photos of his congregation in the pews as his parishioners self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic in Curitiba, Brazil, on April 12, 2020. The celebration was broadcast to the parishioners online. #
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Pope Francis holds a cross as he leads the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession during Good Friday celebrations at St. Peter’s Square, with no public participation due to the coronavirus outbreak, at the Vatican on April 10, 2020. #
Yara Nardi / Reuters -
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Priests Lorenzo Fedele and Francesco Gravina lead an Easter Sunday Mass from the roof of the Santa Maria della Salute church for locals who participated from their balconies and windows, as Italy remains on lockdown, in Naples, Italy, on April 12, 2020. #
Ciro De Luca / Reuters -
Volunteer Al Wheeler, wearing bunny ears, keeps an eye on the service and cars during a drive-in Easter service at the First Baptist Church in Plaistow, New Hampshire, on April 12, 2020. #
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A woman holds willow branches that she received from a priest, an Orthodox Palm Sunday tradition, in the corridor of an apartment building in Bucharest, Romania, on April 12, 2020. Priests accompanied by volunteers delivered the traditional willow branches to residents. #
Vadim Ghirda / AP -
Father Nuno Westwood prays for the faithful staying home on Easter Sunday due to the coronavirus outbreak in Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal, on April 12, 2020. Standing in a small white convertible, Father Westwood traveled through the streets of his parishes praying in a microphone to be heard by the community members at their windows. #
Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP / Getty -
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Priest Don Tommaso Bonifaci visits people in his building to perform Holy Communion on Easter Sunday, while observing social distancing, in Rome, Italy, on April 12, 2020. #
Yara Nardi / Reuters -
Victoria Bittle and her grandmother Alice Stearns watch a sunrise Easter service, one that typically sees thousands of people annually but was closed to the public this year and moved to a television broadcast, in Alto Pass, Illinois, on April 12, 2020. #
Brian Munoz / Reuters -
Catholic priest Marcelo Santiago celebrates Easter Sunday Mass behind closed doors at Nossa Senhora do Carmo church, after Holy Week celebrations were canceled in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on April 12, 2020. #
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Pastor Terry Hedrick, from the Gunnison Valley Church of the Nazarene, raises his hands in prayer as parishioners sit in their cars during a drive-in Easter service via a radio transmission, organized by the Delta Ministries at the Tru Vu Drive In theater in Delta, Colorado, on April 12, 2020. #
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters -
Technicians wearing protective suits stand next to a nun who records as Mexican Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón celebrates Easter Mass in an empty cathedral in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on April 12, 2020. #
Guillermo Arias / AFP / Getty -
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A man celebrates a Mass outside of the Church of Saint Catherine in Ralbitz, Germany, on April 12, 2020. Normally, according to tradition more than 100 years old, men of the Sorbs, dressed in black tailcoats, ride on decorated horses, proclaiming, singing, and praying the message of Jesus’s resurrection. The Sorbs are a Slavic German minority located near the German-Polish border. #
Jens Meyer / AP -
Jonathan Lazzaro of the Harvest Baptist Church worship team, from Harrison, Pennsylvania, appears during the first screening of an Easter service at Riverside Drive In Theatre in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, at sunset on April 10, 2020. #
Gene J. Puskar / AP -
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Pastor Marc Lickins (top left) of the Harvest Baptist Church in Harrison, Pennsylvania, gathers with his family in the front of their minivan to watch the first screening of an Easter service produced by the church, at the Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Parks Township, Pennsylvania, on April 10, 2020. #
Gene J. Puskar / AP -
Participants in the Episcopal Church Virtual Choir and Orchestra are seen in a collage during a live-streamed Easter Sunday service at the Washington National Cathedral, on April 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C. #
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Pastor Jerel Hagerman leads a “drive-in crusade” on Easter Sunday evening in the parking lot of Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel in Yucca Valley, California, on April 12, 2020. #
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A member of the Victory Christian Ministries International church attends an Easter Sunday service in the church’s parking lot in Temple Hills, Maryland, on April 12, 2020. #
Michael McCoy / Reuters -
Christopher Robertson drinks Communion wine as he listens to a Facebook Live broadcast of the Easter service taking place in the Sunshine Cathedral on April 12, 2020, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Members of the congregation met in the parking lot and watched a live-stream of the service taking place in the cathedral. Each car that arrived received a Ziploc bag with a prayer card, palm leaf, and prepackaged Communion. #
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Christians hold candles as they offer prayers during an Easter service on the rooftop of their house during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 12, 2020. #
Aamir Qureshi / AFP / Getty -
Father Pedro, founder of the Akamasoa Association, leads the traditional great Mass celebrating Easter through the different villages of his community in Antananarivo, Madagascar, on April 12, 2020, adapting to the rules of social distancing. #
Rijasolo / AFP / Getty -
Pastor Viktor Weber films with his cellphone as he celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday at a cemetery in Berlin. The ceremony was live-streamed in Germany on April 12, 2020. #
Michele Tantussi / Reuters -
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