A church in Old Greenwich is paying tribute to Connecticut's victims of COVID-19 with a striking display of white flags.

The Rev. Patrick Collins says he finds himself with a new daily task amid the coronavirus pandemic at the First Congregational Church of Greenwich.

"I decided, as the numbers of deaths across Connecticut started to creep up, that we as a church needed to do something to honor those lives that have been lost to COVID," he says.

He says a prayer over the flags each day.

 

"It's a spiritual feeling when I place them in the ground," Collins says. "That it's in memory of someone who had a family and couldn't be with them when they died."

Collins says his church hasn't lost any members to the virus, but that several have gotten sick and recovered. He tells News 12 there are some whose loved ones haven't been as fortunate.

He says the flags give people the chance to mourn and acknowledge their pain, which is something crucial to do during this time.

Collins says with grief comes the hope that we will get through this together.