Close to 700 Participate in Virtual Community Easter Service

"We were so very pleased” expressed Dr. Belinda Basaca-Zeitlin, who serves as Secretary of the Committee for the Glen Cove Community Easter Dawn Service. Dr. Basaca-Zeitlin, a parishioner at St. Boniface Martyr Catholic Church, where she serves as the Youth Ministry/Community Development Director, was in charge of making sure the live feed on Facebook was up and running. This she did from her home as she also monitored comments and shared lyrics to hymns in the comment section below the live video feed as it played. “We had close to 700 views at one point in the service during the live broadcast and by the end of the day on Monday, the number of views via the rebroadcast had reached well over 3,000. As impressive as the numbers were, the most important thing was that the community service was able to share the message of the resurrection, even in the midst of this horrible pandemic."

The Rev. Shawn Williams, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, shared a similar sentiment, “While pulling the components together to share the community service virtually was no small feat, it was important that people see that our message is bigger than this disease.” Fr. Williams was one of five clergy involved in the live streaming of the service, while other clergy and song-leaders participated either through shared recording or through their comments online during the service. Rev. Gia Lynne Hall, a United Methodist Minister, who also participated in the live broadcast, said she was honored to participate in past years and saw this service as an opportunity to reach beyond the confines of the standard service, “Especially in these times of uncertainty, we needed to come together as a community of faith in the certainty of the Risen Christ.”

While typically the service is held on the beach in Morgan Park, because of the closure of the parks due to Covid19 and with the need for social distancing, this year’s event was moved directly across the street from the park to a local resident’s front lawn and was streamed live to Facebook. Owner of the home, Alba Gamble said, “When the committee reached out to me and asked if I might be open to having the service on my front lawn, of course, I said yes! I loved watching the service from my porch.”

Associate Pastor Josue Correa and Song-leader Erika Bautista, both with Iglesia Ciudad de Refugio, were not able to be part of the live service, but shared their gifts via recordings not only of scripture, but also of music. At one point in the service, Glen Cove Christian Church’s pastor, Rev. Tommy Lanham, read scripture in English and then held his cell phone to the microphone to share the same scripture in Spanish as recorded by Associate Pastor Correra. “I couldn’t be there in person, but was honored to contribute on behalf of my pastor, Rev. Juanita Lopez, on behalf of my church, and on behalf of the community,” said Correa when reached at his home on Sunday afternoon. “Iglesia Ciudad de Refugio, has always been a part of the annual service, and I was thrilled that we found a way to have them be a part of the service as it was streamed over Facebook,” said Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews, an Elder at the First Presbyterian Church, and chair of the committee that organizes the service. “This was just another example of how the various pastors and past attendees found ways to be engaged in the service even with having to keep the number of clergy down to five due to concerns over social distancing.”

Pastor Tommy Lanham, who became minister of the Glen Cove Christian Church this past August was happy to be a part of this year’s Community Easter Dawn Service and commented, “It was great to see the community come together to celebrate Easter in the midst of everything that is going on. It would have been easy to simply cancel this year because we could not gather in the traditional way, but Gaitley worked to not let that stop us. It was a much-needed time for the community to take a time out and come together in celebration!

"Two priests from St. Boniface Martyr Catholic Church also helped lead the service, Fr. Kevin Dillon, Pastor of the Church and Fr. Chinthaka Perera, Associate Pastor. Fr. Dillon shared a short sermon along with Rev. Hall, Fr. Williams, and Rev. Lanham, and led the opening of the service with “Christ is Risen” spoken in nine different languages. “This was the third year that Fr. Prerera and I have participated in the service and with this pandemic, it seemed even more important to come together as a community. We were happy to be a part of it.” said Fr. Dillon.

Fr. Perera not only shared a blessing, and lent his voice to the opening acclamation of “Christ is Risen” in his native language of Sinhalese, he also helped Elder Stevenson-Mathews in running the sound for the service. “It was important to have as few people as possible involved in the running of the things, so when Fr. Perera offered to do double duty by helping with the sound, I could not have been more pleased. Everyone pulled together to make sure the service came off without a hitch,” said Stevenson-Mathews, “and I believe people were moved by the messages shared. This year’s service never could have happened were it not for the hard work and commitment of the clergy and the people who have come to love the service. In spite of the hardship and heartbreak of this pandemic, we managed to have an uplifting Easter celebration that was not only shared in Glen Cove, but shared well beyond the confines of our city. It was a good day.”

Those participating “in-person” for the Community Easter Dawn Service included the five clergy noted above, the chair of the committee who also led some of the hymns, and Piper Robert Lynch, who also lent his voice to the opening of the service with “Tá Críost Éirithe!,” Irish Gaelic for “He is Risen.” Those participating in viewing and posting comments below the live video feed on Facebook included many clergy, some who serve on the Community Easter Dawn Committee, and others from across Long Island; singers, who rehearsed the songs the week before via a Zoom Meeting rehearsal prior to the service; and, close to seven hundred attendees both locally and some as far away as Florida, Texas, and Scotland.

The eight-member churches involved share in the responsibility of the celebration. The churches include Calvary A.M.E Church, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Glen Cove Christian Church, Iglesia Ciudad de Refugio, St. Boniface Martyr Roman Catholic Church, St. John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Pastors from the eight churches, some of whom participated remotely, included Rev. Mark V. Applewhite, Fr. Kevin J. Dillon, Fr. Mark L. Fitzhugh, Rev. Gia Lynne Hall, Rev. Tommy Lanham, Rev. Juanita Lopez, Rev. A.H. Sparkman, and Rev. Roger Williams. Music for the half-hour service was coordinated by Merle Richards, Choir President at Calvary A.M.E, and by Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews, Elder at First Presbyterian Church.

The Committee for the Glen Cove Bilingual Community Easter Dawn Service gratefully acknowledges the NYC Police Benevolent Association for underwriting a full page ad promoting the service, which included the following sentiment, “Ad sponsored by the NYC Police Benevolent Association, Patrick J. Lynch, President, in grateful tribute to the heroic healthcare workers, first responders, sanitation, grocery, restaurant, and delivery workers on the front lines of the COVID19 crisis.”

Rebroadcast of the service can be viewed on the Glen Cove Community Easter Dawn Service’s official facebook page, which is www.facebook.com/GlenCoveEaster. It can also be viewed on youtube via this link: https://youtu.be/SKxnNs7rZ44