How Churches Have Responded to the Coronavirus Crisis
By: Dan Foster
Tags: News, Church, Health, Religion, Coronavirus

How Churches Have Responded to the Coronavirus Crisis

What happens to faith communities during a global pandemic?

Photo by Ani Kolleshi on Unsplash

It’s official. This week coronavirus was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Along with this announcement came a marked increase in calls for ‘social distancing’ to curb the virus’s rapid rate of infection.

Italy has gone into complete lock-down, and the collective voice for other countries to follow suit grows ever louder. Many large gatherings and sporting events have been postponed or canceled altogether. In the USA, the NBA has suspended their season indefinitely, while in England, the English Premier League has postponed matches until at least April, and in Australia, the Australian Football League — the largest spectator sport in the nation — will be played in empty stadiums for the time-being. Theaters, theme parks and other tourist attractions are being shuttered, and it seems inevitable that schools and colleges will be next.

What about churches?

Yesterday in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that all gatherings of 500 of more people should be canceled. The ban comes into effect at the start of next week.

I started wondering how churches might respond to this development since it is a strongly held conviction among Evangelical Christians that believers should not give up meeting together, while many Catholics regard weekly attendance at Mass as a non-negotiable religious duty. To understand how churches were publicly responding to the coronovirus crisis, I spent several hours visiting dozens of church websites and social media pages. I discovered that many churches, in spite of government directives and recommendations, were planning to go ahead with their Sunday services as normal. Typically, the response of churches seems to fall into one of three categories:

1. Denial

Controversial Christian Pastor, and former tennis champion, Margaret Court, issued a statement to her congregation on Friday 13th March. It said:

“We are in agreement that this Covid-19 will not come near our dwelling or our church family. We are praying daily for you, knowing that we are all protected by the Blood of Jesus. Our desire is for you to be informed and know that out heart is to protect and ensure the safety of all so we can continue to worship together, all out service will operate as per normal.”

The statement also includes a bible verse from Psalm 91:9–10, which states, “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.” Basically, her approach is: “We are going to pray the virus away.” I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt this will stop the virus running across the front lawn of her church — probably sooner, rather than later.

Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox Church will not only continue its services but will continue to share Holy Communion by drinking from the same cup. “We believe that no disease or illness can exist in holy communion, which we believe is the body and blood of Christ,” Reverend Scoutas, of the Greek Orthodox Church said. Let’s hope the coronavirus respects this strongly held religious conviction.

I found a number of other churches admonishing its members using the words of Hebrews 10:25: “Let us not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,” as if berating people who choose to stay away out of an abundance of caution.

Many churches have simply said nothing at all— at least not on their websites or social media handles. One friend told me that his pastor won’t make a statement about coronavirus because, “He doesn’t want people to panic.”

2. Wait and See

To their credit, some churches have issued a statement about coronovirus to their congregants. Many of these churches are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach. Typically, they say “Church is on this Sunday, but we will reassess as we go.” This statement issue by Australia’s largest church, Hillsong, on the 12th March, is typical:

Our church is gathering as per normal across all our Australian locations.

If you or your child are feeling unwell please stay home and rest, seek medical attention and do not attend any church services or gatherings including youth, kids, college, night school or connect groups etc.

any church services or gatherings including youth, kids, college, night school or connect groups etc. If you have traveled from mainland China, Iran, Italy or the Republic of Korea within the last 14 days, do not attend .

. If you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, you should have already received medical attention and been instructed to be in home isolation. Regardless of whether you have, please do not attend .

. If you have a COVID-19 test result pending, please do not attend .

. Our team are monitoring the situation regularly and are following the advice given by relevant health authorities.

There will be hand sanitizer at our locations. Hard surfaces will be wiped down regularly.

In addition, we ask that you please practice good hygiene by frequently washing your hands with either soap or hand sanitizer and by using good cough/sneeze etiquette.

Hillsong has since announced, that after this week, it will limit its gatherings to under 500 people. Exactly how a multi-campus church with thousands of members proposes to do this is unclear at this stage. Also, it begs the question, “Is 499 people still too many?”

3. A proactive approach

A smaller number of churches and denominations have taken a proactive approach to the coronavirus crisis. For example, Joel Oesteen’s Lakewood Church announced on Twitter that it has canceled all its services. Instead, it will ramping up its online experience, live streaming its services across the world.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints went even further when it imposed a worldwide suspension on all its public gatherings. According to a church statement, its members are simply encouraged “to care for one another” in lieu of attending worship services.

Red Church, in Melbourne, was one of the few churches in Australia to immediately heed the Prime Minister’s warning and proactively plan for a time when church gatherings were banned, cancelling their services and turning their focus to providing streaming content. Senior Pastor of Red Church, Mark Sayers, posted a video to his congregation which, in my opinion, represents one of the best responses I have observed by a church:

What I love about Sayers’s approach is that it is both proactive and pastorally sensitive. Instead of berating his members for their lack of prayer and faith, he acknowledges and honors that there is a genuine and understandable anxiety in the community. I am particularly impressed when he says to his members:

“We’ve been contacted by a number of you who are in areas and categories of health which you realize makes you vulnerable coming to a larger event. We just wanted to take that worry away from you. We want to initiate our plan, now.”

Now that’s both proactive and caring.

So, should churches cancel their services?

The ban on public gatherings in Australia applies to groups over 500. Similar bans may soon be in place in other countries, including the USA. However, what about groups that are smaller than 500?

The average church size in Australia is 121 according to the National Church Life Survey. According to research by pushpay.com, in the USA, 46% of Americans churchgoers attend churches with less than 100 members, while another 37% attend churches with more than 100 members, but fewer than 500. Effectively, that means only 17% of churchgoing Americans attend a church larger than 500 people. Given that many Christians attend church in smaller gatherings, some might argue that they should be exempt from ‘social distancing’ recommendations.

However, the idea that groups of people— among whom hugging, kissing and handshaking are common ways of greeting — should gather in close proximity in poorly ventilated rooms needs to be considered in light of this fact: According to Science News, coronavirus is most contagious before and during the first week of symptoms.

This is how a US priest, unknowingly infected with coronavirus, shook hands with hundreds of unsuspecting parishioners after his service. This is how a congregant of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea, infected dozens of other worshipers during church services, effectively giving coronavirus a foothold in the country.

Therefore, the postponement of church gatherings constitutes both a loving and socially responsible approach to this unprecedented situation. Those churches who bury their heads in the sand and pretend that they are somehow immune to disease on the basis on prayer and faith, can expect to become a lightning rod for public anger in due course — and rightly so.

Sometimes loving your neighbor means keeping your distance from them. Certainly, there are those for whom the temporary closure of churches feels like the death knell for a church already in decline. As for me, I am not concerned. The church remains the church whether it is gathered or scattered. In fact, the church’s best work is usually done in times of crisis. Perhaps as the dust falls on empty pews in shuttered cathedrals, the actual presence of God might fall on all of us, reminding us again that God is not contained in buildings constructed by men. He is able to meet us anywhere, at anytime.