NBC News Center Maine – Maine’s Episcopal and Roman Catholic Bishop’s encourage parishioners to attend services online
The Episcopal Diocese of Maine, which includes 58 churches in the state, will not be hosting traditional Christmas Eve or Christmas Day mass. Instead it will all be airing online.
“We’re making sure that there are opportunities online through Facebook, through Instagram, really every tool that is available becomes for us a way for us to minimize isolation, and to maximize a sense of community.” Diocese of Maine Episcopal Bishop Thomas Brown said.
Brown says the parishes in his diocese have already been utilizing virtual services for months, and hope that they’re able to stay connected through church community over the holidays.
St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland will be hosting a virtual Christmas Eve mass at 5 p.m., which will be available to rewatch on YouTube and Facebook afterward, allowing parishioners to have their own ‘midnight mass.’
The Episcopal Diocese will also be hosting a diocese wide mass on Sunday, Dec. 27. You can watch on the diocesan YouTube channel at 7:30 a.m. or anytime after.
New cases in Maine are up 44% over the last two weeks versus 4% for the nation as a whole. Despite that growth in numbers, Maine has among the lowest number of new cases per 100,000 of any state, 31.7.