For the News-Register
Photo Provided
Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church Pastor Erica Harley, far right, conducts an ordination for Jane Schockey, a new minister who now pastors in Toronto, in December. Rather than a traditional laying on of hands, the ordination team connects to Schockey, kneeling, with ribbons during the prayer to allow for social distancing.
WHEELING — The short take on COVID-19 and worship in the Ohio Valley? Vaccines have been more than a literal shot in the arm. Clergy report the faithful are trickling back to churches and temples as disease count continues to drop.
The longer view? Worship ranging from Roman Catholicism’s high church to Vineyard’s rock-and-roll style to Sabbath services at Temple Shalom hasn’t just flexed, clergy also say. It has bent in a varied-venue way that’s likely to stay on when masks are nothing but a memory.