Why You Can (But Shouldn’t) Re-Open Church During the Coronavirus Pandemic

1. The most obvious reason. Coronavirus spreads most easily person-to-person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading very easily and sustainably between people. There are very few social situations on the planet more conducive to the spread of the virus than churches, because in church you spend extended amount of time in larger groups, and most of the normal practices of worship spread the virus more readily by aerosolizing the virus. Singing may be the worst, but just lots of people praying and talking in the same room is problematic.
2. Churches can offer most if not all of their spiritual resources via alternative media. the Bible is a book and can be read anywhere. Hymnals are also portable. Prayer is a completely spiritual medium and can be done anywhere, even without a wifi connect. Church members can call one another to offer mutual consolation of the saints. They can also write letters, the most ancient form of discipling. Then, in the 21st century, many if not most people have access to social media, so worship can be live-streamed or broadcast by video, or hosted in Google Meet or Zoom. Opponents of distributed forms of worship, like communion in homes, argue this is “virtual church” and therefore disembodied, but actually this is simply “differently embodied” and in a way more embodied even than worship in church buildings.

1. This has become an excellent moment to emphasize the prophetic and spirit-filled role of the people of God in the world. I love the creative and distributed ways so many Christians keep living their faith in the world: committed to the common good, expressing concern for the least, focused on earth care, speaking truth to power, bringing grief over injustice to public expression, making music and joy and maintaining friendships and love, maintaining a vision for a just society for all. Communication among congregations could focus on their public role of witness and justice. These are the things the Lord requires of us, Micah says, and we can each of us do them in our unique ways while protecting the health of our neighbors. In fact, the message of protecting our neighbor’s health by not gathering for worship helps center such a focus on justice.
2. Re-gathering for worship now when the elderly and the immuno-compromised (among others) are asked to stay home compounds the pain of isolation. To know others are gathering in person (receiving communion, singing together) divides the church experientially from itself, with one group required to stay home and distant while others gather.
3. We have evidence now, in May, that churches re-opening, even ones taking precautions, are seeing incidence of coronavirus and the death of parishioners and priests. You can make the argument that worship is as essential as other parts of life (businesses, etc.), but there’s a big difference: the economy has an economic motivator, a push factor, that churches simply don’t have. We are free to wait, and that freedom becomes a Christian moral responsibility to wait.

Footnote: I do believe churches will continue to explore and experiment with ways to conduct safe forms of social-distanced sacramental life, service, and worship. As long as these conform to the strictest aspects of guidelines from the CDC and prioritize health over supposed “religious freedom,” it makes sense communities will by trial and error sort out how to conduct life together during the pandemic. I have stated things in a pointed way as pushback against the stridency of (largely) conservative churches that appear to be re-opening under the false pretense that gathering for worship is a form of resistance to persecution by the state.