If it has been a while since you last went to church, your pastor would like to see you again soon. Church attendance was trickling downward even ahead of the pandemic, but the Wall Street Journal reports that in-person worship is still 30 to 50 percent lower than it was before COVID-19 shut down sanctuaries for weeks. Many parishes like St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Luxemburg and Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Casco connected with its members by playing mass over Facebook. As it weaned away from those offerings weeks ago, attendance has returned to about 85 percent of where it was pre-pandemic. Pastor Dan Schuster says they continue to worship together as safely as they can and work even harder to keep its parishes’ young families engaged with the church.

Schuster hopes that something as simple as their upcoming photo directory will help bring people back to church to see what they have been missing out on over the last several months.