The reaction to COVID-19 in Alabama’s religious community evolved quickly, with most congregations opted to cancel worship services on Sunday or urge people to stay home and watch services online.

That led to a phenomenon of preachers standing onstage preaching in front of mostly empty sanctuaries, but using technology to reach thousands watching online at home.

Alabama’s largest church, the Church of the Highlands, with more than 50,000 average weekly attendance at 22 branches statewide, was going forward with Sunday services, Pastor Chris Hodges said in a statement issued Friday. But that decision flipped on Saturday.

By Sunday morning, Hodges was onstage preaching to a mostly empty sanctuary, with the church’s praise band on hand to provide the music.

Other megachurches shut down services also. The Worship Center Christian Church, with Birmingham and Bessemer campuses, decided to do online-only services.

Dawson Memorial Baptist Church

Southern Baptists, the largest denomination in Alabama, are autonomous and make the decision on whether to cancel on a church-by-church basis.

Homewood’s largest church, the 7,800-member Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, has canceled Sunday services except for an online worship. “There will be no on-campus activities this Sunday, March 15,” the church said in a statement. "Instead, we will worship exclusively online.”

Many other Baptist megachurches did the same, including Whitesburg Baptist in Huntsville, Shades Mountain Baptist in Vestavia Hills, Hunter Street Baptist in Hoover and Gardendale First Baptist.

Rock City Church

Rock City Church, a megachurch that draws about 3,500 worshippers a week at campuses in Forestdale, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, canceled services this week due to concerns about COVID-19, Pastor Mike McClure Jr. announced. The Church did a video livestream on its app, on its Facebook page and on its YouTube page, Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesday at 7 p.m. Rock City Church normally holds weekly services at its main Forestdale campus, its Central Park campus in Birmingham’s West End and in Tuscaloosa at the Bryant Conference Center.

Temple Emanu-El

Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama’s largest synagogue with about 700 member families, asked congregants to stay home and not attend services the next several weekends as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. The rabbi and cantor led Friday night shabbat service as an online service. There was no Saturday morning service. The streaming worship service was available as a live feed from the temple’s Facebook page, or on the website homepage.

United Methodists

The United Methodist Church, the second-largest denomination in the state, left the decision up to clergy at each church. Many larger churches had canceled, but some churches still planned to hold services.

These United Methodist churches announced they are not gathering for worship, but offered online experiences to replace on campus worship services:

Alexander City First UMC

Birmingham First UMC

Canterbury UMC

Church at Ross Bridge

ClearBranch UMC

Cove UMC - Huntsville

Gadsden First UMC

Highlands UMC - Birmingham

Riverchase UMC

Saint Mark UMC - Vestavia Hills

Trinity UMC - Homewood

Trussville First UMC

Tuscaloosa First UMC

Vestavia Hills UMC

Sylacauga First UMC

These churches have announced they are not gathering for worship

Anniston First

Columbiana UMC

Huntsville First UMC

New Beginnings UMC

Trinity UMC - Tuscaloosa

These United Methodist congregations had planned to worship as scheduled - but announced some modifications in how the service will be conducted to be more cautious of spreading potential sickness:

Florence First UMC

Gathering Place

Gardendale-Mt. Vernon UMC

Jacksonville First UMC

Trinity UMC - Huntsville

Anniston First UMC did not gather for worship, but their pastoral staff was on campus for those who wanted to come by and have a one-on-one prayer. New Beginnings UMC offered a devotional by the pastor over a telephone conference call. Other churches streamed worship services on their website or Facebook.

Episcopal churches in Diocese of Alabama

The Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Alabama, representing 32,000 people in 88 parishes, asked for the suspension of worship gatherings in churches for three weeks.

“I am directing each of the parishes and worshipping communities of the Diocese of Alabama to suspend face-to-face services of public worship in confined spaces for the next three weeks,” Bishop Kee Sloan said. “This includes Sunday morning worship for March 15, 22, and 29, and all midweek services and group meetings. We don’t typically do baptisms or weddings during Lent, and I am directing you to postpone funerals beyond that time period if at all possible. I am encouraging the clergy of the diocese to create ways for the people of God to continue to gather in worship, making use of technologies available, or inviting the congregation to come together outside our buildings for Morning or Evening Prayer.”

Catholic churches take precautions

Catholic churches have taken precautions such as emptying holy water tanks, discouraging physical contact and not using a shared chalice, but appeared to be going forward with scheduled Masses this weekend while urging parishioners not to feel compelled to attend.

“Although our churches remain open and Masses continue to be celebrated, all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Mobile are granted dispensation from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass if they have a concern for their own health or that of their loved ones,” Archbishop Thomas Rodi said in a statement released Friday. “I hope, especially during this time when we need the power of prayer, that all will continue to participate in Mass, but for the time being, no one is obligated to do so.”

Birmingham mayor meets with pastors

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he had met with pastors to discuss reaction to the health crisis. “If they have the ability to have service online, we encourage them to use that option,” Woodfin said. “If they have the ability to do more than one service to decrease the population during that actual service so the congregation can be smaller in numbers, we as that they exercise that option. We ask that they provide hand sanitizer at the church. We ask faith-based leaders that like to hug and shake hands, we ask them not to do that for the month of March. We’ll see how that looks in April. We ask them be intentional about practicing social distancing if they attend church, have church and have service. We don’t want service to stop, but we want them to practice social distancing, which also includes washing hands, having hand sanitizer available on their pews.”

UAB Hospital Senior Chaplain urges caution

The Rev. Malcolm Marler, senior director of pastoral care at UAB Hospital, said canceling services can be a hard call for many congregations to make.

“We are recommending for the meantime, we don’t know how long, from a health standpoint, that faith communities not gather for large meetings,” Marler said. “For us in Alabama, if you’re telling us not to gather in worship, the only thing harder than this would be if it happened during college football season.”

The situation has been shifting daily and it’s hard to stay on top of it, he said. “This is an ongoing decision-making process that feels exhausting and anxiety-producing,” he said.

He notes that at first chaplains were encouraged to not visit patients who had special complications, but gradually discouraged from visitations in general.

“As clergy, we are probably as exposed as anybody in the community, with the number of people we see and shake hands with,” Marler said. “It’s putting the people we care for in danger. As a department of pastoral care, we want to encourage people to find other ways to be supportive. We’re right in the middle of it all.”

While religious tradition stresses the importance of gathering in community as a response to crisis, this health crisis runs counter-intuitive to that response.

“The whole strategy is social isolation,” Marler said. “We need to be six feet away from people who are gathered together. That’s really hard. We’re encouraging congregations to not gather in large crowds.

Everybody has to make their own decisions.”

But the stakes are high, Marler said.

“I was talking this morning with an infectious disease expert who emphasized that what we do over the next few weeks will make a difference in how many people are infected and die from this,” he said.

And these stringent measures won’t last forever, Marler said.

“This is not permanent,” he said. “This is for a time. We’re called in the faith communities to love our neighbors as ourselves. We need to ask what’s the best we can do given the circumstances to help people’s lives being saved. That includes not being in crowds of people. You can’t control the infection rate in that kind of setting.”

Staff writer Anna Beahm contributed to this report.