Helen Belton concludes her three-part series on churches’ experience of Covid-19, extending her survey1 to churches outside of the UK and also to other religious groupings.
Many churches plan to keep online services going for some time to come, as it is by no means certain that everyone will make an easy transition back to physical services. A minister of a church with a relatively small congregation sees the possibility of meeting physically monthly and holding online services otherwise.
One independent church, which draws in visitors from around the country to its healing ministry, as well as having a regular Sunday congregation, has been uploading sermons and worship to YouTube and using video-conferencing software for Bible studies, prayer meetings and their youth group. They envisage continuing online most of the latter to complement, not replace, physical meetings. Gathering online has saved time, energy and money, especially for long-distance visitors. Nevertheless, they anticipate people will return happily to services. Catering will be DIY with no tea and coffee served and no indoor group meals.
Hatch, Match and Despatch
Perhaps tellingly, churches were included with places of entertainment in lockdown lifting. Baptisms, weddings and funerals are, of course, the events most likely to draw people in from the community to churches, but they remain off limits or restricted.
For Anglicans, baptismal fonts will have to be emptied and disinfected and only one candidate presented per baptism service. Only parents will be allowed to hold infants and water will be poured using a shell or other vessel. Anointing with oil will be allowed with a cotton swab rather than a finger.
Weddings will not be going ahead yet. Bell-ringing, clock-winding and the raising and lowering of flags is discouraged, according to Church of England advice.
Funerals will only allow limited attendees for the foreseeable future, but they can now be held in Anglican churches, albeit without singing. Video-conferencing software will allow friends and family to participate from home.
Many churches plan to keep online services going for some time to come, as it is by no means certain that everyone will make an easy transition back to physical services.
Catholic Churches
The closure of Catholic churches has been keenly felt, reflecting the importance of sacred space in Catholic tradition.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols writes: “At Westminster Cathedral we’ve had people praying at the closed door. Often there’s been a bunch of flowers left at the door of the church as [a symbol of] a yearning, a longing to be in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament that’s part of our deep-rootedness of faith that we know that Jesus is present with us and He makes that presence into a visible, tangible sacrament. So, we yearn to be back in the aura, in the presence, so that we can express our love for Him in this way, which is a more full expression of who we are.”2
Stadium Blues
The Last Night of the Proms this summer may turn out to be someone singing 'Land of Hopeless Lockdown' via Zoom at their kitchen table waving a Coronation coffee mug! Similarly, we are unlikely to see a return to stadium-busting Christian events in the near future. New Wine has been cancelled and is offering full refunds ‘minus deposit’, but hopes people will not claim: “The decision to make refunds available could cost New Wine £1.06 million and place not only future New Wine United events at risk, but the ongoing mission.”3
Spring Harvest’s cancellation left them with a £1.5 million hole in their finances, but their supporters filled the funding gap. The events went online and reached ten times the normal number, with people attending from 97 countries. However, they remain “totally committed to gathering together physically”.4
Other Religions
It may interest readers to know what other religious groups are doing. Churches were allowed to open for private prayer from 15 June (with full reopening said to be unlikely until at least 4 July), although leaders from other religions have protested that, as their traditions require communal worship, this favours Christianity.5 Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism, Laura Janner-Klausner, said, “What matters to us is being together, and until we can do that safely, our synagogues will remain shut.”
Jonathan Romain, the rabbi of Maidenhead synagogue and author of The Jews of England, said: “My own synagogue, like many others, is reluctantly planning on taking the unprecedented step of cancelling our new year/day of Atonement services in September, and holding them through live-streaming or Zoom instead – the very first time in Jewish history this will have been done, as we do not think it will be possible to hold gatherings of several hundred people in a way that is compatible with social distancing and other safety measures.”
The chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), Qari Asim, said, “The fundamental difference between mosques and some other places of worship is that mosques are first and foremost used for congregational prayers.” For that reason, he has advised mosques not to open yet.6
Hindu temples did not reopen on 15 June, according to Rajnish Kashyap, General Secretary of Hindu Council UK. The majority of Hindu worshippers are older and in the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community, which has been disproportionately affected by the virus. “I think worshippers understand that the safety and wellbeing of devotees is paramount”, he said.7
The world is in need of a Saviour. The world is in need of salvation.
A Sample of Churches Abroad
South Korea – draughty in here
South Korea’s churches reopened at the end of April with designated seats for worshippers and only 700 allowed in a hall with capacity for 3,000.8 The offering will likely be reduced, but a building that size needs substantial maintenance. The question for this church and many others is, will people support the maintenance of large buildings if services continue at reduced capacity or from home?
United States – homecoming queen?
In the USA, by 29 March, only 7% of Protestant churches were meeting physically, according to a survey of pastors. Nearly a quarter said their churches were already livestreaming worship services pre-Covid. Another 43% said they did not livestream usually but had started doing so because of coronavirus. Another 27% just posted online videos of their sermons.
Adult small groups have moved entirely online in 55% of cases, but 40% said they had not met at all during the coronavirus disruption. In addition:
Most say they’ve seen church attendees help each other with tangible needs (87%) or meet coronavirus-related needs within the community (59%). More than half (55%) say an attendee at their church has been able to share the gospel through this time, with 4% seeing someone make a commitment to follow Christ. Many (44%) say an attendee has counselled someone crippled with fear.
Three in four pastors (75%) say someone within their church has had their income impacted by reduced hours at work. Around 2 in 5 (42%) say one of their church attendees has lost their job. And 5% of pastors say they have someone at their church who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.9
The First United Methodist Church of Miami employed a staff member specifically to help with online ministry and they foresee them continuing after the pandemic. Rev Audrey Warren, the senior pastor, thinks their Miami church will be virtual with a global membership and a physical “homecoming service” once a year.10
Germany – quiet over there!
German churches reopened on 3 May, but singing was banned owing to its extra production of virus-laden droplets. Worshippers maintain social distance and wear masks. Handshakes are prohibited. Cologne Cathedral, which has capacity for 22,000 visitors a day, limited entry to one service to 122 people. People book in to reserve their place and there are no post-service gatherings.11,12
Thumbs up for Anglicans in Europe
Advice from the Anglican Church to the Diocese of Europe lists plenty of new rules, including ‘soft singing’ by small, distanced choirs, no wind instruments. and no touching of lecterns or pulpits. They also recommend that instead of the traditional handshake as a sign of peace that, “a sign of reconciliation can be conveyed in a different form such as, bringing together the palms of one’s hands and bowing to the other with a smile, as in the Indian Namaste greeting.”13 Perhaps just a simple thumbs up instead?!
Priests are also advised to wear mask and gloves and deliver communion “in one kind” (bread or wafer only). Communion lines must be single file and socially distanced. Giving should be online where possible and cash gifts left on a tray at the exit. Offering counters must wear gloves and churches are to be scrupulously cleaned after each use, by trained cleaners.
Given the amount of work and outlay involved, one wonders how many Anglican churches will choose to re-open in any meaningful way.
Given the amount of work and outlay involved, one wonders how many Anglican churches will choose to re-open in any meaningful way.
Singapore – gospel focus
Precautions that Singaporean churches took to maintain services included taking temperatures, helping the authorities with contact tracing, suspending gatherings of the vulnerable, suspending Communion (or using pre-packaged elements) and using overhead projectors not hymn books.14
The top piece of advice from Singaporean churches was, “Your church’s worship will change. Hold tight to what is sacred – and hold everything else loosely.” The crisis will have revealed our true character. Are we governed by biblical or worldly values? Are we looking outwards? The gospel is even more relevant now and prayer is more important than ever.15
Their advice is that whatever you decide as a church leader, you will not be able to please everyone. Some have castigated leaders for a lack of faith in capitulating too easily in closing churches. Others have criticised those who hung on as being unloving and socially irresponsible (this happened in South Korea in a non-mainstream church considered by some to be a cult).16
Christians across Singapore excelled in acts of love and kindness among a fearful public, including giving migrant workers free masks and vitamins, sending thousands of handmade notes to encourage healthcare workers, and organising a blood drive as blood banks ran low due to people being fearful of going to hospital.
Financial Challenges and ‘Greener’ Options
In Part 1 of this series, we touched on the financial side of churches’ decisions post-lockdown. The cost saving of meetings online is appealing – especially in the face of looming recession - and online is ‘greener’. Online may also appeal to busy, commuting workers, as well as to elderly people (if they have help with access) who do not want to drive out in the dark on chilly winter evenings.
Again, however, the question arises, is that true ‘church’? Some say the Spirit can move just as freely among us on Zoom as in person. One Israeli couple who hold Bible studies with people across the world say that they continue to pray for healing and see the Lord move in Zoom sessions.
Crossing Denominational Boundaries
Will churches be able to afford to keep full staff teams, or even the same number of clergy? Resources may have to be pooled across parishes, communities or even denominations. It will be interesting to see how the existing denominational structures resist or adapt to the pressures coming their way.
Online services are currently maintaining the professional clergy-laity divide, but will that continue to answer need? The possibility of smaller cell churches emerging as leaner, more affordable models, could be one outcome. Mature believers used to gathering for prayer meetings will be comfortable in these settings. The alternative will be larger conglomerates of churches pooling resources, which will suit young, fringe and less mature believers who appreciate front-led services with slick video production values.
The Most Important Lesson of All
“The world has a virus infection that is far greater than all the viruses we’ve ever known throughout its history. That virus is sin”, says Edmund Chan, leadership mentor of Covenant Evangelical Free Church in Singapore. “And with this virus, there is absolutely no immunity, no survivors, and no hope. And it infects 100 percent of all humanity. No one is spared from this. The world is in need of a Saviour. The world is in need of salvation.”
Ben KC Lee, pastor of River Life Church in Singapore, says: “Is the meaning of life and our time on this earth the prolonging and preservation of life for as long as possible? Is it to be occupied with temporal things: material wealth and comfort? Or is it to fulfil Jesus’ desire to see all the rooms in our Father’s house that he has prepared being filled to the brim?”17
The urgent priority for churches is to equip the saints to make disciples and to find new ways of sharing our hope in Jesus the Messiah.
Useful ResourcesCovid Churches Handbook ‘Dial-a-sermon’ line The Church of England: Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for churches Lifeway Congregational Survey Zoom Accessibility features |
References
1 N.B. The analysis in these articles has been based on selected interviews with UK church leaders and media reports. It does not constitute a comprehensive piece of research.
2 Cardinal thanks Catholics for their patience. Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. 6 June 2020.
3 New Wine United 2020 Update. New Wine website.
4 Offering update, Spring Harvest 2021 and more. Spring Harvest, 15 May 2020.
5 See coverage at The Telegraph and The Guardian.
6 Coronavirus: Mosques told not to reopen despite government plan. BBC News, 7 June 2020.
7 ‘Disappointment and hurt’ as places of worship remain shut while shops reopen. MSN News, 1 June 2020.
8 Daewoung, K & Soohyun, M. South Korea's big churches reopen with designated seats, size limits. Reuters, 26 April 2020.
9 Most Churches Have Stopped Gathering, Few Plan to Meet on Easter. LifeWay Research, 2 April 2020.
10 Patterson, J. COVID-19 could push the church toward change. UM News, 20 April 2020.
11 Sullivan, R. Churches reopen in Germany – but no singing allowed. The Independent, 3 May 2020.
12 Chitwood, K. No Joyful Noise as German Churches Reopen Without Singing. Christianity Today, 12 May 2020.
13 Practical Guidance once lockdown is eased and church buildings can be used for public worship for the Anglican Church Diocese of Europe (not available online).
14 Sng, E. 7 Lessons from Singapore’s Churches for When the Coronavirus Reaches Yours. Christianity Today, 11 March 2020.
15 Ibid.
16 Sang-Hun, C. Shadowy Church Is at Center of Coronavirus Outbreak in South Korea. New York Times, 21 February 2020.
17 Thir.st blog, 19 February 2020. Quoted in Edric Sng, 7 Lessons from Singapore’s Churches for When the Coronavirus Reaches Yours (see note 14).
