Re-opening churches
1. Disinfect before worship commences all surfaces people touch.
This includes surfaces in the worship area, foyer/entrances, restrooms, etc. Parishioners
should avoid touching anything that is not properly sanitized between one person and
the next touching it. This includes books in pew racks, offering plates/baskets,
handrails, etc.
2. Employ creative options when adequate sanitization is
impossible or impractical. For example, outfit acolytes, ushers, altar
guild members, floral arrangers, and sound system operators with disposable gloves.
Sextons and other cleaners should likewise wear disposable gloves. Authorize
only one musician to play each instrument. Teach clergy, lectors and others who
use microphones to never touch the mic with a bare hand.
3. Eliminate Sunday bulletins/worship leaflets unless printed
and distributed with no human contact. Alternatively, use electronic
screens to project the information previously printed.
4. Observe recommended or required physical distancing. This
means verbal greetings without physical contact when arriving, leaving and
exchanging the peace. Congregations that in January filled their worship space
will probably need to add worship services. Congregations with sparse January attendance
will probably have sufficient space for attendees to maintain physical distancing.
5. Encourage, or require if dictated by civic authority, all persons
to wear a mask.
6. Empty holy water fonts to avoid unintentionally spreading the
virus.
7. Practice safe baptisms. Most Christian traditions prefer
that clergy perform baptisms. Nevertheless, those traditions consistently
recognize that in unusual circumstances non-clergy may conduct a valid baptism.
Probably the most common situation in which a lay person performs a baptism is
an emergency baptism of an unbaptized person believed to be dying when no
cleric is available. Today, a masked and gloved cleric, using fresh water in a
freshly sanitized font, might baptize someone. Alternatively, the cleric can officiate
at the baptism with a person who lives with the candidate performing the actual
baptism, using fresh water in a freshly sanitized font. Others may devise
additional safe options that avoid potentially spreading the Covid-19 virus.
8. Anoint wearing gloves and a face mask. This applies to
anointing in both Holy Baptism and healing services.
9. Replace most or all vocal music with instrumental music. Singing
widely spreads aerosol particles that can carry the virus. Play recorded vocal
music with a license. A vocalist, possibly amplified, may face an open window
or door, avoiding spraying the congregation. Amplification may also allow a vocalist
to sing from another room or outside. Similar restrictions apply to clergy who
formerly sang all or part of the liturgy.
10. Offer an attractive virtual option for participating in
corporate worship or an alternative virtual service. Promote the virtual
option(s) as a positive approach; encourage individual parishioners to choose
the option best suited to their individual’s health. Elderly, persons with
compromised immune systems and persons with significant health problems who are
especially susceptible to the virus are among those who should seriously consider
delaying their returning to corporate worship.
11. Holy Communion is undoubtedly the most difficult element
of Christian worship to resume; for many traditions and individuals, their Eucharistic
celebration is the central act of Christian worship:
a. Traditions that celebrate the Eucharist with a common cup will want
to resume Eucharistic worship cautiously and employ appropriate theological and
liturgical adaptations. The consecrator might wear a mask and gloves. Some scientific
analysis reported by Dr. Michael
Osterholm suggests the improbability of communicants catching the Covid-19 virus
by receiving a wafer and wine from a common cup. Persons who wish to return to
the Eucharist more slowly and with greater caution may opt to receive only the
consecrated host. The Church teaches that the fulness of Christ is present in
both elements. Distribution of the consecrated host may be reasonably safe if
the minister wears gloves, mask and maintains maximum feasible physical
distance.
b. In traditions that observe Holy Communion using individual cups,
solution appear easier. Persons filling the cups might do so using every
reasonable safeguard, e.g., wearing masks and gloves, never touching anything
with bare hands and sanitizing everything possible. Cover the trays of cups and
wafers during the service until time to distribute them. Then, persons
distributing the trays wear face masks and gloves and extend their arm
supporting the tray as far as possible; the recipient similarly uses fully
extended arm to receive a wafer and take a cup. Commercial vendors sell individually
packaged single wafers and filled cups, eliminating most possibility of
contamination. Prioritize preventing unintentional spread of the virus over “we’ve
always done it this way.”
The preceding recommendations are suggestive and not proscriptive. I lack the authority to tell anyone how to worship and the scientific knowledge to determine best practices. My aim is to prompt discourse about re-opening churches and the changes that will make re-opening safe. Diverse practices will quickly separate the safe from unsafe. Now, more than ever, congregations and their leaders by observing and listening to one another can learn new, healthy ways to sing the Lord’s song while preserving the cherished Christian melody.
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