Sarasota churches, temples focus on virtual presence

Across Sarasota, churches and temples have made the move to a virtual platform due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“These are unprecedented and uncharted waters,” said the Rev. Michael Canon, from St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church on Siesta Key. “We just have to take one day at a time.”

The church held its first fully virtual service March 22, after the call came from the Diocese of Venice on March 19 to suspend all Masses and other religious events held in Catholic churches through Easter.

Canon holds a virtual Mass at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday and at 10 a.m. Sunday. A virtual prayer hour from 2-3 p.m. is also being held Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In an effort to help those tuning in at home feel as if they are still at church, Canon said virtual Mass and prayer are being led in the sanctuary.

Temple Emanu-El began encouraging its members to practice social distancing three weeks before guidelines came from the White House on March 16, Rabbi Brenner Glickman said.

“Before coronavirus had come to Sarasota, we encouraged our members to make safe choices,” Glickman said. “Even though we were having services and programs here, we started broadcasting through our website and through Facebook Live, so that people could start getting in the habit of participating in services and education programs virtually.”

Temple Emanu-El is hosting five virtual Shabbats to serve its wide-ranging population including a regular Shabbat service, a family Shabbat, a morning Torah study, a morning “tot Shabbat” that serves the temple’s youngest members and end of Sabbath Havdalah service.

All services are being broadcast from the rabbis’ homes, rather than from inside the temple.

Church of the Redeemer Episcopal made the call to host fully virtual services three hours before Gov. Ron DeSantis made the executive order for all gatherings of more than 250 people to be limited on March 13, the Rev. Charleston Wilson said.

“We got ahead of it because we have such care and responsibility for our people that we could not risk having a large number of persons — especially at-risk persons — come and be part of a service, so we transitioned immediately to a livestream,” Wilson said.

Church of the Redeemer wanted to offer its virtual services with a threefold approach, Wilson said. The first section was virtual worship, the second was virtual education that came in the form of an evening education hour, and the third was pastoral care.

With pastoral care, Wilson said the goal was to check in on the church’s 2,500 parishioners by phone or email.

Two members of the church, Liza and High Culverhouse, set up a $200,000 fund to assist members who might be facing economic hardships, Wilson said.

Taking care of members in need is a notion that stretches across Sarasota religious organizations regardless of spiritual affiliation.

First Baptist Church of Sarasota set up a similar fund, The Galatians 6:10 Fund, Pastor Bill Hild Jr. said. The fund is set up for members of the church who might have been laid off, are unable to afford groceries and medicine or are in need of help.

Similar to Church of the Redeemer’s pastoral care program, Temple Emanu-El is launching a program called “Members Helping Members,” where the temple will reach out to the congregation to see if anyone is in need of help from food and medicine delivery to technical support for livestreams.