More churches going online with worship services during pandemic

More Batavia-area churches are changing their worship plans this week to meet revised rules that further reduced the size of groups that can meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immanuel Lutheran Church in Batavia announced Tuesday it is giving up all in-person worship the next two weeks.

Instead, it will offer an "interactive" online worship service at 8 a.m. on Sundays.

It announced it hopes to reopen for in-person worship Palm Sunday weekend, April 4-5. Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, which culminates in Easter.

The church joined others that already canceled in-person worship and other activities.

Batavia United Methodist Church is doing online-only worship, via YouTube Live. Batavia Evangelical Covenant Church also livestreamed its service on YouTube.

The Rockford Diocese, unlike the Joliet Diocese and the Archdiocese of Chicago, has not canceled regular Masses. But it has instituted 50-person limits on attendance at funeral, wedding and quincenara Masses, and only relatives are to attend.

Churches also are banned from hosting funeral visitations or luncheons, and quincenara and wedding receptions in parish halls. Confirmations have been postponed, communal penance services are canceled. The annual "Be Reconciled" confession event is canceled.