NEW ORLEANS — Social distancing and limits on large gatherings issued by local and state governments to combat the spread of coronavirus have left churches and synagogues empty and quiet.
That means priests and rabbis have had to find novel ways to celebrate Holy Week and Passover.
So a priest and a rabbi walked onto a New Orleans airfield Friday.
"Not as the beginning of a joke," said Rabbi Lexi Erdheim with Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie.
Instead, it was an unusual way to bless their congregations — and the entire New Orleans metro area — during an unusual Holy Week and Passover.
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond took the front seat of a 1943 Boeing PT-17 Stearman, with its bright yellow wings, and then took to the skies.
It was the first "Spirit Flight" of Big Easy Wing of the Commemorative Air Force.
"We passed over some of the hospitals," said Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
"There was some holy water from the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized," Aymond said. "That was blessed, and I sprinkled that over the city. And also brought with me communion — the body of Christ — used that to bless the city."
Erdheim said a quick ride toward the heavens makes perfect sense right now.
"Throughout all faiths, every person of faith has looked to the heavens for guidance, for hope, for support," the rabbi said. "I'm going to be reciting the words of Mi Sheberach, which is a prayer of healing that we say in many different occasions. It's a prayer for healing of body, mind and spirit."
Aymond said he's certain of at least two things on Good Friday. Here's one:
"I've never had a Holy Week like this before, and I suspect I will never have another one (like it)," Aymond said. "It's been very unique."
The second is that we'll all get through this — you've just got to have a little faith.
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