U.S. army chaplains came up with some creative ways to help troops celebrate Easter overseas on Sunday. For army chaplain Lt. Col. Donald Ehrke at Camp Zama, Japan, drive-up communion was a roaring success.
"At first I thought, I laughed," he admitted when he first heard the idea from their Catholic priest. "And then I thought, well that's just crazy enough to work."
As he explained to Fox News's Shannon Bream, the cars line up every Sunday at church, stay in their vehicles, and listen to the service on their FM radios. This Sunday they drove off with their Easter bags put together by volunteers. It was just like a drive-in movie.
"People loved it," he said.
Even though the churchgoers were separated, Ehrke said that there was a sense of belonging, togetherness, and community.
Churches across the U.S. practice similar innovative ways to celebrate Easter Sunday. Pastor Bruce Wike shared that his Metro Church in Henderson, TX conducted a drive-through Easter egg hunt on Saturday. He and his wife have also been conducting drive-in prayers, in which they go to congregants' homes and pray over their homes.
So many people are experiencing new episodes of loneliness, and they're "searching for a message that's going to touch their hearts," Wike explained.
But even the practice of drive-in worship proved a little too lenient for authorities in places like Kentucky. Gov. Andy Beshear pledged to record the license plates of any churchgoers who tried to attend drive-through services this Easter. Conservative senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul had some colorful things to say about that.
These moving stories about how communities are finding creative ways to celebrate Easter are a part of Fox News's "America Together" editorial series, which has been shining a much needed light on some happier headlines throughout these otherwise dark days.