The scene at churches across Virginia and Maryland looked drastically different on the first Sunday after stay-at-home orders ended. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church’s Mass moved from the pews and instead met in a gym that could hold 1,000 people. Up to 180 were allowed.

Reservations are now required for Mass. They held four to accommodate everyone. When you arrived, church staff made sure parishioners had a mask and escorted them to their seats. Folding chairs were cordoned off into groups of up to six people meant for each family.

“It looks like no church you’ve ever been,” said Father John Mosimann. “We divided the gym with a little bit of yellow caution tape into little cells, as I’m calling them — not in a prison sense, but in the monastic sense — that this is your little home.”

No socializing. No passing the tithing baskets. Bathroom breaks only for emergencies, read the rules posted online. Mosimann cleans his hands after giving Communion to each person. Cleaning crews wipe everything down in between every Mass. The Catholic Diocese of Arlington said it’s eager to be safe and get this right.

“People have been calm and cooperative,” Mosimann said of the new reality. And overwhelmingly grateful.

Churchgoers were eager to get back to in-person worshipping after nearly two months of no large gatherings. Gloria Vasquez of Fredericksburg said she was looking forward to Communion.

“I can’t wait to receive the Eucharist,” Vasquez said. “It makes me so happy … I could cry.”

St. Mary’s, like many churches, continued its online live-streaming for those who are ill or immune-compromised.

In the age of coronavirus, virtual services quickly became the new normal, with worshippers gathered around computers to stream services on Facebook Live. Religious rituals and holidays like Easter, Passover and Ramadan were transformed to accommodate bans on large gatherings.

But houses of worship in parts of Maryland and Virginia were allowed to reopen on Friday at 50% capacity, as the states both started to ease some of the restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The governors of both states, however, allowed some of their hardest-hit jurisdictions to keep restrictions in place for longer, which means no religious institutions have reopened in the D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia or Montgomery, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties in Maryland. (Baltimore also extended its stay-at-home order, though one church defied that order and held services today.)

Still, even in areas where restrictions are easing up, a number of religious leaders say they’re not ready to welcome people back onsite quite yet.

Reid Robinette is the pastor at Crossroads Church, a multi-campus church in Maryland. After hearing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement this past week, Robinette said the church quickly “went into action” trying to figure out their plans, but they have not yet reopened.

“There were a whole lot of questions that were impossible to answer in a week’s notice,” he said, noting that it may be a while before congregants can return for Sunday morning service.

The church sent around a survey to congregants yesterday to gauge how they feel about returning.

“The decision of reopening is to serve the people who are coming,” Robinette said, “And so if we make a decision that is devoid of their input, we felt like that would be, number one, presumptuous and, number two, not very helpful.”

Robinette said there are a number of questions he’ll ask and possibilities he’ll consider when it comes to reopening.

They might require tickets to reserve seats or hold a lot of smaller services throughout the day, like St. Mary’s has done. Staff will need a plan to disinfect the space, and they’ll have to decide whether to conduct temperature checks as people arrive.

“Will the experience be something that serves the people?” he asked, “We have singing as a part of our worship service regularly. And that’s one of the things that is not recommended at this time. And so, thinking through the programming of it, and understanding, Is the in-person going to be beneficial?”

The church has four campuses, and they range in average attendance from around 200 to 1,000. Three of their locations are in Carroll County, where churches can reopen, but one is in Baltimore County, where restrictions remain in place. So there won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution that works for each of these locations, Robinette says.

He thinks it’s possible that some in-person gatherings, like small prayer services and Bible study, might resume before others, like large Sunday morning services or children’s programming.

“Of course, the goal is to be able to have again our worship services open to everyone in person on Sunday mornings. We envision that might be a while, as we walk down this road.”

Since March, Crossroads Church has been streaming services online, and Robinette noted they have actually seen upticks in attendance at both Sunday services and smaller group meetings like Bible study.

“We’re not fooling anybody, we really would like to get back and be able to meet in person again, but … we’ve seen just some really miraculous things happen online.”