It is an opportunity that spreads joy, says parish priest in Tved Rebecca Maria Aagaard-Poulsen.
– It’s simply so cool that we can be allowed to. You miss being able to gather the congregation around you.
– Easter Sunday is just as important as Christmas, a holiday, and we must do it, she says.
In Tved, they also held an outdoor service on Christmas Eve. The parish priest has used those experiences for planning Easter Sunday outdoors.
– We talked about holding all the Easter services outdoors, but it requires quite a lot of preparation. That’s why we ended up with one service outdoors – Easter Sunday.
– We have a garden by the church with altar, fireplace and shelter, where the church musicians come down with guitar, so it becomes a little more low key.
– We make a corona-friendly, alternative communion, get a visit from an Easter chicken – and then of course we have to sing together, says Rebecca Maria Aagaard-Poulsen.
Also in Ringe Church, one of Easter’s many services is held in the open air.
This will be the second day of Easter, when the service will be held in front of the church, says parish priest Karen Blauenfeldt Dam.
– We move the whole service outside, but it will probably not be quite as long because we have to get up.
– But four hymns must be sung, be text reading and togetherness. We miss singing together and I think community singing has a great meaning, so it’s great we can be allowed to do that, she says.
Last year, it was not possible to go to church physically for Easter due to corona restrictions. And for Christmas, restrictions were introduced at short notice, leading to the cancellation of physical services in many places.
Those restrictions continue to apply indoors and require 7.5 square feet of floor space in the church per person. Hymns should not be sung, and the service should not last longer than 30 minutes.
It is especially the possibility that the congregation can sing with the outdoors that is incredibly important. This is what Bishop of Fyens Diocese Tine Lindhardt says.
– For worship services, we are not just spectators. We are participants. And singing is a really good way to become a participant. We are in the worship service by taking the words in our mouths and singing them.
– It is an essential part of the service, and we can now do it outdoors, and it is great, she says.
At Kirker.dk it is possible to find an overview of outdoor services across the country.
Source: The Nordic Page