Should churches be the first to reopen?

So, when not if, churches reopen, how should they meet safely is the question that needs to be at the top of the Order of Service.

Over the past three to four months, the spread of the coronavirus has exploded across the globe, leaving patients on ventilators, and families grieving over the loss of their loved ones. To limit the spread of this virus, most governments implemented strict stay-at-home orders. This very blunt instrument was necessary because many countries were simply unprepared for the rapid spread of this virus. If nothing were done, the rising number of infections would have overwhelmed our healthcare system, and deaths would have quickly escalated passed the current 93 (as of 9 May).

During this period, churches across Australia, and indeed around the world, have closed their doors to in-person worship and ministries. As with many preventive actions, we may never know how this has limited the spread of COVID-19, but as global health professionals tell us, this has prevented many infections and deaths that would have occurred among congregants and their families and friends had lockdowns not been implemented.

Our churches are now facing a set of difficult decisions: when to resume in-person ministries and how to carry out these ministries safely.

One way forward is to take a step-by-step approach that helps the national church live out its missional calling, meet the needs of its congregants, and protect the health of those in the church and in the community.

This all sounds good, but it is well worth noting that churches in Australia are in uncharted territory regarding how to respond to the current epidemic. Churches will all continue to learn as this epidemic evolves, hibernates, and/or resurfaces again. Based on recent experience, here are two simple approaches churches could make in real time: (1) assess what kind of actions a church should take based on the risk of transmission, and (2) implement a framework that can help churches develop a specific plan to prevent infection and increase social distancing as and when necessary.

To discern God's call for the churches to re-open, two factors need to be relied upon: biblical truths and scientific knowledge, both of which have been given, Christians would argue, by divine right. Even as clergy focus on preventing COVID-19 infections, churches should not neglect the spiritual, emotional, and social needs of its congregants. During this period of social distancing and 'On-Line' sermons, it is perhaps even more important that churches meet these needs as best they can through worship, prayer, encouragement, witnessing, discipleship, and serving in a way that minimises the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The Catholic bishops' proposal is sound and viable. According to the proposal, re-opening churches, at first only for private prayer and confessions and with strict protocols in place, would be a significant benefit to many in the community offering solace to the faithful and hope to the anxious.

The first of the four stages would exclude masses and services and be limited to private prayer and confessions, with physical distancing and the use of hand sanitiser overseen by monitors. The second stage envisages masses and services to be held in outdoor spaces such as carparks, with the number of attendees limited. The bishops suggest "no collection plates or hymn books to be passed around; no shaking of hands or holding hands … and Holy Communion to be given and received safely''. Stage three, with similar provisos, would see masses and services moved indoors with stage four a "return to the (new) normal with learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic".

Whilst not a prophet, Christians are prayerful that the COVID-19 pandemic in its present form will pass. One day Australian churches will look back on this time and see clearly that God was with the churches and was working in their midst for good. One fact is for certain is that when people return to gather for worship and fellowship and study, it will not be the same church before the coronavirus pandemic. The world will never be the same. And neither will the church. Alea Iacta Est.