When the government says you should cancel church

[Haruo]

Both the King County Executive and the Governor of Washington have now publicly urged groups of ten or more not to meet, and anyone sixty years old or older not to go out, stay home.

If this happened in your state and county, would your church meet, or meet by Skype, or not meet? Would it matter what party the elected officials in question belonged to, or what their religious affiliations were? COVID-19 is about to run up against Sunday morning in the None Zone.

[William Thornton]

If there was an actual quarantine I’d probably obey it. If it’s a suggestion, probably not.

[Rvaughn]

What William said. If an official quarantine, then yes. If just a suggestion, we would meet, and certainly those who preferred not to meet for safety's sake would just stay at home.

[Dave Roberts]

I agree with William, but we will have hand sanitizer stations available Sunday.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

In spite of the governor's request for people over 60 to stay home, and for inessential meetings of ten or more people to be canceled or postponed, I went down to Olympia this morning and put in half a day singing. Here are .

My guess is attendance was probably about half of last year's, but it was still a fine, fun singing with lots of Isaac Watts in it.

[Joseph Patrick]

From Gerry Milligan ... As a person who's age and coexistent health problems, coupled with the governor of Oregon's declaration of a state of emergency, I feel that I would be foolish to expose myself to a room full of potential coronavirus carriers at church. If only there was some way to identify those carriers of the virus, that would make decisions better. But, unfortunately, there no "Scarlet Letter" on carriers, and I do not want to become a carrier myself and infect others. Thank God, our church puts the Sunday sermon on a podcast. '

[Tim Bonney]

So, now that Covid-19 is in Iowa things are changing quickly. Des Moines hospitals have closed the hospital to visitors. Local nursing and retirement facilities are now closed to visitors. So no visitation this week.

I'm considering canceling communion in April with the possible exception of Maundy Thursday and having servers hand out individual communion cups rather than our usual Methodist intinction.

[Haruo]

Luckily, Fremont Baptist is small, so we are allowed to worship together. Churches with more than 250 in attendance are under an emergency state and county order not to meet, and those with less than 250 have to undertake several specific precautions. Quite a few churches are meeting and worshipping by computer, whether livestreaming or just texting.

on FB (run out of a Catholic church in Prague) that I've attended most Saturday mornings for several years all of a sudden seems like a bit of pioneering, cutting-edge worship.

[Tim Bonney]

Des Moines Schools, all the state universities, and Simpson College here in Indianola are canceling class for an extra two weeks tacked on to spring break, which starts this coming week. Indianola Schools is going to decide what they will do tomorrow. If the schools close my church will be discussing if we will close after this Sunday for the last two. Sundays of the month.

These are crazy times. In 30 plus years I’ve never seen this level of shut-down for a health concern.

[Haruo]

Or maybe we're not allowed to worship together. At the very least, to do so legally will require a lot more work.

[Haruo]

[Joseph Patrick]

From Gerry Milligan ... In Oregon, our state government has ordered assemblies of over 250 persons to be canceled for the next four weeks. Our church exceeds that both Sunday morning and evening. But sent out a double message: "God’s Word instructs that we are not to neglect to gather together (Heb. 10:25). Love of neighbor (Mk 12:31) compels us to care for the health concerns of others. We are also instructed to submit to the governing authorities (Rom. 13:1), so long as this does not entail disobeying God. In light of this tension, and based on current information, we plan to meet this Sunday"
As I said above, our church puts the service on a podcast, so I will listen to it. But, my question is: Are we being manipulated by the Hebrews reference, and the explanation of the Romans reference? I would like to know what you think.

[Haruo]

JPGM, could you provide a link to your podcast?

[Joseph Patrick]

[Haruo]

Thanks! (I didn't know the name of your church.)

[Tim Bonney]

Our school district has decided not to close schools yet, so we are still having church on Sunday with a lot of precautions. All this could change week by week depending on the level of outbreak. Iowa public health officials aren't encouraging churches to stop meeting yet and, honestly, are giving mixed messages about what is safe.

Doctors are saying we should not have public meetings to flatten the curve of outbreaks. But health officials in Iowa are arguing for waiting until we see more cases. But without testing, how will we know when we are seeing more cases, and is it then pretty much too late after that?

[Dave Roberts]

We are having worship Sunday, but with precautions. Greeting times are being removed, and we will not have greeters at the doors after worship. We are debating placing offering plates at the doors rather than passing them.

[Haruo]

[KeithE]

Our church just cancelled church tomorrow as well Wed night activities. Schools are closing next Thursday through Apr 3 with send home instructional material being developed by teachers and coordinated next Mon-Wed.

The . But my son Todd's church is having online services via the internet. Most Huntsville churches are cancelling services, however Huntsville has only one confirmed COV-19 case - a Marshall Space Flight Center employee.
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On a more personal level, we’e decided to not go a a high school play tonight and will play boards games galore and read for a few weeks.

My son-in-law Chris is home early due to Casting Crowns cancelling their concerts. His Luke Bryan Tour is still scheduled to start up late May thorough October (most every Thurs - Saturday) but that may change. The concert business may very well dry up this year which threatens his income (and their medical bills are still very high). He does lighting for these concerts.

My sister Carol is financially dependent on substitute teaching 4 days a week. After her husband died about 2 months ago (she is a 3 time widow) she is understandably “a mess” as she says. She may stay with us.

[William Thornton]

I’m pretty much like Keith. No church for a couple of sundays.

My church gets a considerable portion of offerings online, so it’s not like the offering faucet is shut off. My guess is that some churches will be thrown into serious financial crisis if several sundays are skipped.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

Our first Virginia death occurred in the Peninsula Health District of Virginia, one county and a river crossing away from the church I am serving in interim. I tried to get the church to cancel this Sunday, but the deacons would not. I will be there only for worship and will not be greeting the people before or after.