Church increases number of parishioners

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — As with every house of worship during the pandemic, Christ Episcopal Church in Glen Ridge has had a difficult time, with its members locked down and in-person services curtailed. But as with other houses of worship, there has been resilience.

“We were hit hard, like a lot of people,” said the Rev. Diana Wilcox during a telephone interview on Friday, Jan. 21. “We had to shut down our nursery school, but it is now reopened.”
Wilcox said the pandemic was an emotional hit for the church, but worship quickly went virtual. The church closed its doors to the public on March 15, 2020.

“That next week, we were online,” she said. “Now we’re been in person since November 2021, in a hybrid format.”
The church, she said, uses YouTube and Facebook for its virtual platforms. Since its reopening, Wilcox has baptized two girls and a boy. Having the church open again has been wonderful, she said, although some people prefer to remain at home and connect online. But the church has also seen an increase in worshippers, thanks to online platforms.

“We’re looking to grow stronger, post-pandemic,” Wilcox said. “God has blessed us tremendously. We haven’t been as hard hit as other parishes, but we’ve lost some loved ones.”

The church also took a financial hit, but, Wilcox said, with its hard work, the church will have a bright future.
During the pandemic, Christ Episcopal maintained its music and choral singing. This was important for Wilcox, who credits the choir section leaders for maintaining music as an integral part of worship.
“They did a beautiful job to keep that up,” she said.

All worship services were conducted by Wilcox and worship leaders and transmitted live, except for Christmas Eve 2020, which was prerecorded.

“We were in the church,” she said. “New people have found us online, too. One person was a former student of mine at Montclair State University. We have people from all over the world. We’ll always be a hybrid, going forward.”

She said Zoom offered the church a way to spiritually connect, and she was grateful for that.
“But now people are Zoomed out,” she added. “It wasn’t as good a device as we’d like.”

When the church closed, Wilcox called every parishioner several times. And what each has learned from the pandemic, Wilcox believes, is the importance of staying in contact with one another. She noted that there has been more communication with other churches throughout the Episcopal diocese. And, despite the difficulties imposed by the pandemic, one activity at the Glen Ridge church actually did better.

“Our book club thrived,” Wilcox said. “Zoom was a good platform. We even had a family that moved to Georgia, and one of them is still with the book club.”

That particular family does not attend Christ Episcopal virtually, she said, and will likely join a local church. But former parishioners that Wilcox had not seen for some time have resurfaced virtually.
Wilcox said her faith has grown during the pandemic.

“I’ve gotten hope and resilience from this,” she said. ”My faith has gotten stronger, and I see moments of God’s grace. Everyone has learned to adapt again and again.”

Last summer, Wilcox was on a short list of three female candidates to become the next Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh; however, another candidate was chosen, who will be the first woman to lead the Pittsburgh diocese.

Wilcox’s last in-person service before the beginning of the lockdown was on March 14, 2020.
“I found it poignant,” she said. “It was the funeral of Pearl Anderson, one of our matriarchs. It didn’t matter how she felt or her trials, she would always say, ‘I feel blessed.’ That sense of Pearl and her faith affected our congregation.”

Anderson’s mantra, “I feel blessed,” spread throughout Christ Episcopal, according to Wilcox. And when the funeral service concluded and the church doors closed, those doors remained closed for more than a year and a half.

The resumption of in-person worship was for the funeral of another congregant, Freda Smith. To Wilcox, there was something poignant and symbolic about the closing of doors after Anderson’s funeral and the reopening of them with Smith’s funeral.

“Pearl and Freda were both African American matriarchs in our church,” she said. “Their voices were always so strong.”