Virtual Tour As Andrea Reber said during her Emotional Intelligence speech, “despite our differences in skin color and class, we can connect deeply by being deeply human together. What a gift”. This is what Unitarian Universalists are all about, even after our world was struck with COVID. Never did anyone imagine a global pandemic…Read more Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence
Worship During the Pandemic
Shambhala Center
Virtual Tour Worship During the Pandemic at the Pioneer Valley Shambhala Center In the early morning of a cool fall day in Northampton, MA, members of the Pioneer Valley Shambhala Center (PVSC) wake up and prepare themselves to head to the center’s meditation service. Instead of getting in their cars and driving to the…Read more Shambhala Center
Northampton Friends Meeting
Virtual Tour At the start of the pandemic, the Northampton Friends Meeting adapted to worship using online Zoom meetings. Each week, most members leave their cameras on and microphones muted as they worship in silence, unless they feel compelled by God to share vocal ministry, just like in an in-person meeting. However, one mother-daughter duo…Read more Northampton Friends Meeting
First Churches of Northampton
Virtual Tour The alarm rings, sun shining, and you yawn, preparing to face the day. Dressing in your Sunday best, you get ready for church. But instead of leaving the house, you sit down at your desk, open up your computer, and wait for the Youtube Live show to start. This has been the reality…Read more First Churches of Northampton
Congregation B’nai Israel
Noah Barondes interrupted his October bar mitzvah ceremony to ask, to no one in particular, “Where are they going?” This ‘they’ would be the twenty some masked and socially distanced bar mitzvah attendees, caught in the act of an awkward, would-be surreptitious shuffle to the sunlight from the cold shaded tent they were…Read more Congregation B’nai Israel
College Church
Virtual Tour Two students sat in a room. It wasn’t just any room, though. It was an online Zoom personal meeting room. Soon after, a third participant appeared, a pastor. Pastor Bill Hodgeman of College Church, a non-denominational church with evangelical roots in Northampton, Massachusetts, was there to converse with and explain to us, the…Read more College Church
Christian Science Society of Northampton
Virtual Tour Worship During the Pandemic at the Christian Science Society of Northampton In times of crisis, religious communities remain beacons of hope, stability, and connection. However, this crisis poses a new set of challenges for everyone, and churches in particular have been forced to find new ways of providing support to those…Read more Christian Science Society of Northampton
Cathedral in The Night
Virtual Tour
St. Valentine Polish National Catholic Church
Virtual Tour Changes Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic Men, women, boys, and girls frantically walk to and fro anxiously getting ready for the day. Mother and son, father and daughter dressed in their finest formal dresses and button-down shirts. As they prepare for their weekly hour renewing the presence of Jesus’s spirit into their souls, they…Read more St. Valentine Polish National Catholic Church