Religious leaders say today marks the biggest disruption to Good Friday services in modern history, with millions of Christians around the world unable to properly celebrate.
Easter is the most significant time of the year for Christians, but many Kiwis are innovating in these challenging times.
One group doing so is the priests, seminarians and trainees of the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, who live together as a seven-person bubble, and are broadcasting services online.
“Our bubble is quite a big bubble. There are seven of us who live in the cathedral presbytery,” Bishop Paul Martin said.
“It’s really good when comes to the congregation because you get some responses so it’s slightly unusual but it’s good company.”
Deacon Tang Phan was expecting to be able to greet church goers on Good Friday, but has instead been roped in as tech support for the filming of church sermons.
“I was asked by the bishop to look after this. It was a hard one for me because I’m a learner so sometimes I make mistakes too,” he said.
With churches shut today, online liturgies were broadcast in multiple languages, including te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, from living rooms, gardens and monasteries across the country.
Emeritus Professor of religious history Peter Lineham says it’s “catastrophic” for Christians to not be able to attend church at such a significant time of year.
“Easter is, in fact, the greatest occasion - Christmas is actually only the beginnings of the steps towards Easter,” he said.
Bishop Peter Carrell of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch says the lockdown is proving even more disruptive to services than the February 2011 earthquake, where services could at least be held outdoors.
“I think young or old, what we're missing is the physical contact of being together in the same building,” he said.
But some say this is an opportunity to modernise, with more traditional religious institutions embracing technology more than ever.
“Almost every church has produced some kind of online event or online service and I think that's got to be for the good,” Professor Lineham said.
Others says the extra time stuck at home is a chance to learn too, with the lockdown reflecting the Good Friday story - hard times now for the greater good of all in the future.
“The challenge for us is if we can be loving in our behaviour, I think it is a loving thing to have this constraint in order to stop the spread of the virus,” Bishop Carrell said.
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