Amid widespread closures and precautions due to COVID-19, local churches have found a modern way to safely hold mass, using AM radio and the parking lot.

“Mass needs to be visible to the parishioners, so we’re elevated, we’re up on a stage approximately four feet higher than the parking lot,” Rev. Bill Roush of the Cluster Parishes said. “It also needs to be audible, so we have AM radio transmitters, so they can tune their car radio to an AM radio station and hear what is being said.”

Roush said the idea began when he heard of other churches in the Diocese of Davenport doing similar procedures. Official guidelines from the diocese outlined three steps for the process of reopening the churches and resuming public Masses.

The first step limited the number of persons in a church to no more than 10 at a time and barred in-person celebration in favor of mass that could be “live-streamed, recorded, or transmitted using other media.”

Step two of the guidelines allowed “limited public worship,” but maintained extensive restrictions such as limiting seating to every third row and maintaining six feet between households, but Roush and Deacon Derick Cranston said they felt using the parking lot would be safer.

“The more we thought about it, the more sense it made,” Cranston said. “With a lot of the older parishioners, they said they’d be more likely to come if it was a parking lot mass where they could stay in their car.”

“I’d really love to be back in the church, but I think that the sole reason for doing this was for those who were compromised and the elderly to have a way that they could attend Mass,” Roush said. “Those were the people I was most concerned about and that’s the safest way you can do it for them.”

Both clergy members agreed that the new format was conducive to traditional celebration of Mass, if unconventional.

“It’s very much the same, it’s the Holy Spirit doing his job,” Roush said. “You receive the same body and blood of Christ inside as you would outside.”

Communion is particularly affected by the change in setting.

“We sanitize your hands before we administer Communion because we’re going from one vehicle to the next,” Roush said. “If there’s multiple people in the vehicle, they wear their masks, step out and receive, then step back in… we’re minimizing any physical touch and taking all the precautions that we can.”

Roush said the help of volunteers was essential in the church’s transition to step two of reopening.

“I appreciate very much the parishioners that stepped up to make it happen,” he said. “It was very well thought out and parishioners came out of the woodwork to supply us with a trailer to lift the stage up and supply all the materials that we needed and I just want to thank the parishioners for making it happen.”

For the foreseeable future, Mass will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday at Saint Joseph’s in Wellman, 8 a.m. Sunday at Holy Trinity in Richmond, and 10 a.m. Sunday at Saint Mary’s in Riverside.