'We have to figure out how to worship in safer ways, and right now in-person, in large groups, in an enclosed building is not a safe place.'
; a large worship service in Cleveland, Tennessee, that appears to have generated at least a dozen cases, including the pastor, who said he stopped counting after 12; a Christian camp in Missouri that had to shut down after 82 campers, counselors and staffers contracted the virus despite taking a number of precautions.Figuring out 'how to worship in safer ways'
Be it by government decree or their own discretion, many houses of worship throughout the country have remained closed or operated at significantly reduced capacity during the pandemic. On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom included churches among the organizations that had to shut down in most of the state because of a spike in infections. Churches had been allowed to reopen under certain conditions in late May.
“My theory is I have to act like I have the coronavirus, and I try to minister people as if, if I breathed on them, I could kill them,’’ said McKenzie, who wears gloves and a mask while preaching. McBride said six members of his church have died of COVID-19, and many other families have lost loved ones. It was especially painful not to be able to comfort them in person, having to rely on phone conversations and hearing how congregants couldn’t bid a proper goodbye to their relatives who died because of restrictions on funeral homes.
“It’s very hard because people are definitely used to closeness and the idea of being touch-deprived is very real right now,’’ Simmons said. “It’s been very difficult for folks to accept that.’’ Bernadette Meyler, a constitutional law expert at Stanford University, said the state’s right to safeguard the health and welfare of its residents has long been established and takes precedence as long as the regulations in that interest are applied equally. For example, Meyler said, limitations on gatherings at churches couldn’t be more stringent than at movie theaters.
Robert Jeffress, the prominent pastor of First Baptist Dallas, said his megachurch has encouraged but not required those in attendance to wear masks, adding that about two-thirds of them do. The downtown church, which provides several online ministries, closed for in-person services in mid-March 15 and reopened June 7, reducing the combined capacity of its two auditoriums from 4,500 to about 1,400 in a nod to the virus.
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