The end of the Easter season will most likely be celebrated this Sunday in the same fashion as it began — with Bay Area churches offering online celebrations but nothing that invites people inside the hallowed walls of church sanctuaries.
“We will not have in-person worship on Sunday,” said the Very Rev. Malcolm Young of Grace Cathedral. “Even if the governor and the mayor give us permission, we still do not know how to do this in a safe way yet, and safety is more important than gathering people together in a building.”
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new state guidelines that allow California’s houses of worship to reopen at 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is lower, provided they meet social distancing and sanitation guidelines to reduce spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Newsom left it up to the health departments in individual counties to open churches, and thus far no Bay Area counties have lifted the ban. Mayor London Breed announced also on Monday that the stay-home order for the city and county of San Francisco “remains in effect and does not allow houses of worship to host religious gatherings.”
Across the country, the ban on in-person religious worship has become a source of tension: Some believe it should be considered an essential activity and allowed more leeway, while others are concerned about the public health risks associated with large groups congregating.
In two Northern California counties, recent church services held in violation of the state’s shelter in place order have been linked to a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases.
Erin Mordecai, a Stanford biology professor who researches how the coronavirus is transmitted among people, said she has some concerns about allowing gatherings up to 100 people, especially if they take place indoors where air flow is diminished.
“The more people you get in one place, the higher the probability that at least one of those people is infected,” she said. “That said, as activities start to reopen we have to evaluate the risk-reward ratio of a given activity.”
Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County, who helped launch the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place orders in March, questioned Newsom’s recent move.
Allowing gatherings of 100 people, Cody said at a county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, exceeds the limits of states such as New York (10) and New Jersey (25), and “poses a very serious risk for the spread of COVID-19, based on probability alone.”
“Our ability to contain the virus from spreading if there’s one COVID-positive individual at such a large event is quite limited,” Cody said.
But some church leaders and local politicians are pushing back in the other direction, saying that limiting religious services to 100 people was too strict.
“While most churches I’ve spoken with are grateful for the governor’s initial olive branch, it’s just not enough to satisfy the needs of the community,” said Robert Tyler, an attorney representing California churches that have challenged the governor’s stay at home order. “Limiting places of worship to 100 people is arbitrary, unreasonable and unconstitutional.”
Tyler added that many of the documented outbreaks linked to churches occurred before social restrictions were in place and the public did not have as much information about how the virus spread.
Health departments in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties responded to a Chronicle inquiry by stating that they are reviewing guidelines but had no plans to allow churches to reopen for this Sunday’s observance of Pentecost, which marks the end of the 50 days of Easter. A survey of Bay Area churches found none willing to violate the ban on religious services or even push for the reopening of churches that President Trump has demanded.
“The overwhelming number of faith leaders are not in a rush to reopen,” said Michael Pappas, executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council, which represents 800 churches in all denominations citywide. Pappas noted that churches may be reluctant to reopen even if counties permit it because the churchgoing public tends to be older and more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
In issuing the governor’s directive, the California Department of Public Health stated that it is “strongly recommended” that churches continue to provide remote services. Churches are protected by the First Amendment against most forms of government intrusion, but have been following the directives.
“The Catholic church has been working with local and state government officials on safety protocols for the opening of our churches to public worship,” said Salvatore Cordileone, archbishop of San Francisco, who oversees 90 Catholic parishes in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties.
During the lockdown, hosting worship services through video conferencing tools like Zoom, Facebook and other online platforms has been surprisingly successful. Attendance numbers have held steady and even expanded through this format, which is another reason why the major denominations are in no hurry to reopen.
On Easter Sunday, Grace Cathedral had 9,878 online viewers for a choral Eucharist that might normally draw 3,500 tops.
The Episcopal church has continued with the same format ever since, and numbers have held steady at a minimum of 2,000 viewers, more than twice what could be expected to fill the sanctuary. Last Sunday there were viewers from 14 states.
Young expects it to rise dramatically for the Pentecost. Grace is offering a Pentecost service for all parishes in the diocese of California, which means the flock from 70 or 80 churches may tune in to hear readings in Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin and English.
“It will have majestic organ music and beautiful singing,” said Young. Grace has developed a “continuity-of-operations plan for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It includes dividing the preschool into two sessions and staggering hours for church staff. Staff meetings will continue to be done by Zoom, even after all 63 staffers have returned to the building. Choir and singing during services may have to be curtailed. Most importantly, the online services will continue even after the pandemic is over.
“Grace Cathedral in the future will offer services online every day,” Jones said. If you are in a nursing home in Modoc County and cannot get out, we will have something for you every day.”
As the seat of the 60-church Episcopal Diocese of California, Grace does its Sunday service from the Gothic Revival steel-and-concrete city landmark atop Nob Hill. Directly downhill in the Tenderloin, Glide Church has been shut down for 12 weeks with its entire service done remotely through Zoom and streamed via Facebook Live.
“We are calling on everything in us to meet people where they are, and where they are is in cyberspace,” said Marvin K. White, minister of celebration at Glide Church, who delivers his sermon from his home in East Oakland.
Glide shut down its sanctuary and dining room 12 weeks ago but has continued to offer its daily meal service as curbside pickup for prepacked meals. Everything else is done remotely. White envisions Glide eventually reopening as a hybrid of online and live services. Given social distancing guidelines, the sanctuary will be able to hold 100 maximum, not the 600 to 700 that might cram in for one of its raucous Sundays.
When it reopens, there might be a reservation system, with timed admission like for major art shows at museums. There could be more sermons that are shorter, to get more people under the roof on a Sunday. They might blow the roof off altogether and take the sermon to the street where more people can attend.
White knows the Sunday ritual will have to change, probably permanently. But, he says, it has changed already and some of it is good. People either too far away or too infirm to get out the door have been able to be part of Sundays at Glide.
The world-renowed Glide Ensemble, under the direction of Vernon Bush, is singing and playing keyboards at home. Other musicians guest soloists and the 40-member choir also perform from home and it somehow mixes together to approximate the spontaneity in the old Methodist church at Taylor and Ellis streets.
“We have to remind people that we live in Silicon Valley,” White said. “Even God is a gig worker.”
Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @samwhitingsf
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Bay Area churches keep services online, though state allows them to reopen - San Francisco Chronicle
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