Has COVID-19 Changed Worship Services Forever?

Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus began surging through churches across the country where services resumed. The virus infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers, and Christian youth camps. It hit churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed new limits on numbers of worshipers. Across the country, pastors and their families tested positive, as have church ushers, front-door greeters, and hundreds of churchgoers. Has Covid-19 changed worship services forever?

While thousands of churches, synagogues, and mosques across the country have been meeting virtually or outside on lawns and in parking lots to protect their members from the virus, the right to hold services within houses of worship became a political battleground as the country crawled out of lockdown this spring. In May 2020, the president declared places of worship part of an “essential service” and threatened, though it was uncertain he had the power to do so, to override any governor’s orders keeping them closed. As the virus continues to storm the country, the drive to reopen churches appears to   …Click HERE to continue reading