Kentucky churches closed by COVID-19 can reopen. Here’s why many are waiting.
The Rev. Kent Gilbert, pastor of historic Union Church in downtown Berea, says he is not hurrying to get his congregation of 175 or so back into the building during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will not be opening May 20,” Gilbert said Thursday of his ecumenical church that dates back to 1853. “No pastor wants to race back to church to do more funerals.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear had said houses of worship in the state could open May 20 but that doesn’t mean all of them should. On Friday, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order that will allow churches to reopen immediately, as long as they follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines.
Beshear said Wednesday that each church should make sure it meets safety guidelines, such as cleaning, spacing people out and requiring masks to help keep COVID-19 from spreading, especially among the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions. His administration offered more specific guidelines late Friday, including limiting attendance to 33 percent of the house of worship’s capacity and permitting only one person at a time in a restroom.
“The safest way to worship is still virtually,” said the governor, who banned in-person mass gatherings in March.
Since then, most churches, synagogues and mosques in Kentucky have complied with the governor’s directive. Many have turned to online or drive-in services. However, two churches — Maryville Baptist in Bullitt County and Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville — have taken Beshear to court with help from Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
Although churches have the green light to reopen soon, many of them don’t plan to open their doors this month.
Todd Gray, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said Southern Baptist churches in Kentucky are looking forward to getting more guidelines from the governor. The convention is affiliated with 2,360 churches in the state that have about 750,000 members. It is the largest Protestant denomination in the state.
“We’re trying to give the churches a lot of counsel,” said Gray Thursday. “We’re encouraging all to follow CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines and providing as much information as we have.”
Gray said he believes many churches with the convention will reopen for Sunday services on May 24, “but there will be quite a few that will wait until later. They will need more time to reach the guidelines.”
At a minimum, the in-person worship experience will change, he said.
“For example, there will no passing of offering plates. We’re looking at maybe placing a basket for offering as people are leaving services,” he said. “And there will be strict social distancing. You won’t see mass choirs.”
In a recent editorial for the convention’s online publication, Kentucky Today, Gray said church attenders likely will wear masks, will be seated further from each other, will not have Sunday school or child care, will not be shaking hands or giving hugs and will see more hand sanitizer, cleaner buildings and more ushers and greeters to provide guidance.
“Even though our buildings will begin to re-open there may be some church members who will be best served by continuing to view the services online for a while longer,” he said.
Gray said he thinks about 30 percent of church members would choose to return right now, about 25 to 30 percent won’t be coming back soon and 40 to 50 percent will come back only when they know safety precautions are in place.
‘We can add as we go’
Pastor Richard Gaines of Consolidated Baptist Church in Lexington, said his church will not reopen in May. It has about 1,600 members, most of whom are African-American.
“Leadership is discussing it but we simply are not ready and I don’t want to put anyone at risk,” said Gaines.
Gaines said the church’s decision also takes into consideration that COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting the black community.
John Lucas, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Pikeville, said its services have been online and on television and radio since early March. The congregation had a drive-in service on Easter, but doesn’t plan to return to in-person services until at least June 7.
He wants to wait and see how coronavirus cases are trending in the area before restarting services, Lucas said.
Church leaders have drawn up an extensive “Healthy at Church” plan that includes having three and possibly four services instead of two to keep the crowd size down. Its sanctuary holds 650, but the plan will limit attendance to 150 at each service, with no Sunday School or other services through the week except online.
The number of entry ways will be limited and doors will be propped open so no one will have to touch them. People will be required to wear masks in the first phase of the plan; social distancing will be required; there will be hand-sanitizing stations; and surfaces will be cleaned after services. There won’t be any baptisms or observances of the Lord’s Supper initially, and donations will be through online giving or a drop-box, not passing the plate.
Lucas said online, TV and radio services will continue.
“If we start a little more conservatively we can add as we go,” Lucas said.
Masks in church, physical distancing and other safeguards mean the services won’t feel like traditional church, Lucas said.
“Christianity is relational,” he said. “One of our key principles at FBC is ‘experiencing community,’ and that is just severely restricted under protective measures.”
‘I know the people are nervous’
The Kentucky Council of Churches, which represents about 1,100 congregations in Kentucky with 800,000 members in a variety of churches ranging from Episcopalians to United Methodists, released a document this week to help its members “discern the safest practices” to reopen.
It repeated Beshear’s message that the possibility “to return to worship does not mean all settings are prepared to do so.”
“In the interest of ‘loving your neighbor as yourself,’ we hope and pray each individual, congregation and pastor will consider prayerfully and faithfully all that must be done to save lives,” it said.
Its guidelines were similar to those of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
Pastor Gilbert of Berea, who is president of the churches council, said he did not know how many churches will reopen this month.
“I know the people are nervous,” he said. “Myself, I think this time would be better used in preparation and not to even think about it before June. We have to be thoughtful or we are going to kill people.”
Gilbert noted that many churches are seeing an increase of attendance in online services.
“We have about 175 in our church building for services but we had more than 1,500 hits last Sunday with our online service,” he said. “We can worship God anywhere. Just because certain things are reopening, it doesn’t mean the virus is less deadly.”
Catholics releasing guidelines soon
Jason D. Hall is spokesman for the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, which represents more than 400,000 Catholics in the state.
He said the state’s bishops plan to release guidelines next week about reopening churches.
Rabbi David Wirtschafter, who has been serving Temple Adath Israel in Lexington since 2015, said his house of worship “greatly appreciates the flexibility the governor has given us to reopen but we also appreciate his saying whether it is advisable.”
Temple Adath Israel, with 270 congregants, is not ready to reopen, said Wirtschafter, “and we don’t know when. We are not ready to take that risk.”
The largest church in Lexington, Southland Christian Church, which has several thousands in attendance for weekend services, has not yet decided when to reopen.
“We’ve seen what the governor has said but we have nothing concrete to share at this time,” said associate pastor Nathan Head. “We’re not really sure.”
Haitham Issa, president of the Islamic Society of Central Kentucky, said the umbrella group’s houses of worship will remain closed “until further notice” because Muslim prayer requires close proximity of worshipers and the requirement to prostrate on communal carpet.
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
