NEWVILLE, Pennsylvania — When there is a will, along with a little ingenuity and a lot of faith, there is a way.
Since last week, when so many services in nearly all religions and denominations in our country were suspended because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus, most congregations have found a way to stream their services for the faithful.
Missing for people of faith, though, were all of the emotional rituals that made the experience more meaningful — the sense, feel, emotion, and even the scents of gathering together in devotion to God that they have practiced since their first service.
By the evening of the first Sunday without church services, Jay Mowery, like most people of faith, felt the depth of that loss. He said he was grateful to be able to view his services online but that he missed his community. “A good friend of mine called me and asked if it could be possible for the area churches to come to the drive-in we own and use it for services,” said Mowery, who owns the Cumberland Drive-In. “They can stay in their cars. And they don’t have to mingle.”
“I thought that sounded great, so my next call was to Pastor Jeff Kettering the next morning. He called me back later that day and said he’s all-in. Pastor Jeff said he’d take care of the production part of it, and we provided the space and the sound system and volunteers,” explained Mowery.
Kettering is both the pastor of the Newville Assemblies of God church in Pennsylvania and the director of the Big Spring Inner Church Council, a faith organization that connects congregations and parishes of the different denominations in this Cumberland County town. Kettering said he brought it up to them immediately and that they loved the idea. In less than a week, it went from “this might be a good idea” to pulling the whole thing together.
The only unknown was, would anyone show up?
“I thought maybe there would be 20 cars?” said Pastor Mike Kemler, the youth minister for the Assembly of God congregation. That was about what Mowery expected, as well.
Instead, over 300 cars filled the drive-in, all politely letting each other merge and fill the parking area so that this blended faith community could tune in with their radios to the Big Springs council radio station.
On the stage was Kettering giving the sermon. Attendees heard him loud and clear from the comfort and safety of their cars.
In the past week, the rituals of American life have vanished before our eyes. Faith, family, and community traditions, so intertwined and ingrained into who we are as a country, have been ripped from our daily lives in a way that has never happened before.
In a way, that is testing us but also revealing our strength in character and faith.
Rebecca Fickel sat in the front seat of her parent’s car, with her mom beside her and her brother in the back seat. Age 19, she typically attends Shippensburg University and works part time, with an extra side job making colorful hair scrunchies.
She is also a person of deep faith. “Sunday was a very good day,” she said, cheerfully, after the service. “I usually always look forward to going to church on Sunday as part of my weekly routine. I like seeing like my church family, and I just enjoy having that as part of my week. … The experience was so cool. To be able to go and be with people, in the presence of other people, while we weren’t necessarily interacting normally, we were all there for the same reason, which was really nice and refreshing compared to the last couple weeks.”
Like Mowery and the pastors, her expectations for attendance weren’t high.
“I honestly did not expect there to be that many people there,” she said. “Our congregation is generally older, and so, it’s sometimes challenging to see if all of the older members of the community would be able to adapt with all the virtual things the churches are using to get their services and their materials to the community. … I was really happy and excited to see that young people in the community and older people in the community all make the decision, whether that was something out of their comfort zone or something that they’ve done before, to come and have church in their car at the drive-in.”
They sang hymns, flashed their headlights, honked their horns to say “Amen,” and even met new people they had never seen before, despite the absurdity.
“It’s really funny. Like, the car to the left of us, they put their window down and started talking to us because we had the same car, and so did the people beside us. They were waving and talking to us through their car windows. That was cool,” Fickel says.
The vehicles were all more than 8 feet apart.
Fickel is also doing her part to help her community. Her scrunchie business is now a safety mask business. “A family friend of ours works at a nursing home, and she asked me if I could make fabric masks for healthcare workers. They’re not meant to be worn on their own, so it’s like an overlay of protection to the other mask. So, I took a stab at it.”
Fickel ended up making 20 for the nursing home staff. “Over the past 48 hours, I’ve had orders totaling over a hundred masks that I have to make now.” Fickel said she asks just for a donation, enough to cover the cost of the material. Anything over that, she will be donating to a local charity to feed the hungry in her hometown.
Newville isn’t the only town coming together to do this. Exactly 100 miles south, parishioners from St. Andrew Apostle Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, held a Eucharistic Adoration at the church’s parking lot.
There will be services next Sunday and the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that, said Kemler. “Each week, a different congregation will lead the service. And then, on Easter Sunday, we are going to have a sunrise service.”
The Mowery family is all-in. Jay, whose father first opened the drive-in in 1952 after the movie theater they owned in town burned down, is still very moved by what happened on Sunday. “Maybe it’s because Newville isn’t your average small town,” he said. “I think it is also because of who we are in this country. Faith helps draw us together. We just help facilitate that.”
