In response to the coronavirus pandemic, churches in Macclesfield have had to come up with innovative solutions to deliver this year's Easter service to their parishioners.

Nub News spoke to two church leaders in the town about how they have been adapting to the new circumstances.

Rev Martin Stephens, the rector of St Michael's and All Angel's Church in Macclesfield town centre, said his church has been pre-recording services and uploading them to the internet so his parishioners can take part in Sunday services.

Rev Stephens said: "As well as St Michaels, I also look after St Peter's Church on Windmill Street and all but one of their church members has online access, but at St Michael's there are about 40 people who don't, so we've been tailoring things accordingly."

"One of the things we've done this to stay in touch as a congregation is to have group or party chats on the phone, rather than just one-to-one calls," he added.

St Alban's Catholic Church on Chester Road has been in the fortunate position where they have been streaming services to housebound parishioners for some time now.

Now that everyone is being forced to stay at home, they are finding a new audience with thousands tuning into their services from across the country and further afield.

Father Peter Burke told Nub News: "Last weekend we went from our usual of 280 or 290 people watching to 2,800 and they were from all over the place, national and international. They've obviously got a good signal up in the north east of Scotland as we seem to be getting a good few people joining us from there."

Both church leaders hope that during these times when they can not get together to worship, these kinds of solutions offer people to still feel a part of the church and connected to one another.

Rev Stephens said: "One of the big questions in my mind is how do we come out of this stronger? Because people are in their homes alone or with their families at home, its about how do we maintain that sense of belonging to one another.

"The church is about the people not the building; we know that, but I think we're rediscovering that focus on the people and not that massive building in the centre of town."

Fr Burke said people were responding to the pandemic as a community, saying: "We can see already that people are better neighbours to each other. We've become more aware of other people and their needs."

Rev Stephens said he was "very impressed" with how his parishioners have responded to the need for volunteers to respond to a range of needs.

You can watch the Easter sermon from St Michael's Church by clicking here or for St Alban's Catholic Church, click here.