Religious worship in the age of coronavirus: How centuries-old traditions are being upended

Matthew Yamzon knelt in front of the locked doors of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Friday morning, made the sign of the cross and said a quick prayer on the steps of the ornate building in downtown Sacramento.

“I have total faith in my God,” Yamzon said as he stood near signs taped to the front doors of the church announcing it is only open an hour for confessions on Fridays. “I don’t know what’s going on right now, I don’t understand it. Nobody does...

“I just prayed for everybody that’s infected with the virus. I prayed for everybody who needs help. And I prayed for me.”

As one of the holiest times of the year approaches for the world’s major religions and faithful believers like Yamzon, the coronavirus pandemic has upended traditions that houses of worship have relied upon for centuries.

Some have scrapped all services in favor of online models using technologies like Zoom computer conferencing. Some are offering limited hours of prayer inside, while eliminating live celebrations of Easter.

Weddings, funerals, in-person services canceled

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has canceled weddings and funerals and is offering Mass through online streaming from at least three dozen of its parishes. Private sessions are available for individuals to come into a church to pray on their own during limited hours, but parishioners are told to maintain a safe distance from others.

“The parishes are aware of what public health officials are asking of us,” said Bryan Visitacion, director of communications for the diocese. “It’s an extraordinary time, and we’ve had to implement extraordinary measures.”

St. Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church in North Highlands had been offering outdoor gatherings on Sundays from 8 a.m. to noon with cautions to maintain social distancing, but the diocese said Friday it had ended those services after an inquiry from The Sacramento Bee.

Synagogues such as Congregation B’nai Israel also have moved to online services, canceling all in-person events through May 10, according to its website. That means services for Passover, which begins on Wednesday and runs to April 16, will not be held at the synagogue.

And more than 20 Sacramento mosques have canceled in-person prayers and services, with local leaders saying it appears unlikely that Muslims will hold religious services during Ramadan, which begins April 23.

During the month-long observance, when Muslims fast during daylight hours, mosques hold Taraweeh prayers every night. Some Sacramento-area mosques have more than 1,000 attendees arrive for evening Ramadan prayers, where Muslims stand and bow shoulder to shoulder in worship.

Many of the nightly community feasts at large mosques have also been officially canceled. Masjid Annur Islamic Center in south Sacramento is working with the local charity Al-Misbaah to provide rice meat, and home essentials for families in need.

Local imams at various centers are trying to care for the needs of the community online, holding daily religious talks and weekly programs.

“There have been religious edicts about not congregating and not going to mosques,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Sacramento Valley. “One of the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence is the preservation of life, and that takes precedence over congregational prayer.

“People understand this is part of our faith and also our tradition. The Prophet Muhammad talked about plagues; if it happens in another land you don’t go there, and if it happens where you are, you don’t leave.”

Some religious leaders ignore the danger

But as golf courses, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants remain open for take out, other religious leaders are rejecting the notion that they must curtail services to protect their parishioners.

Public health officials say that one-third of the nearly 400 coronavirus cases in Sacramento have been traced to church congregations, and 71 people infected are members or associated with members of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church near Rancho Cordova. Two members of Faith Presbyterian Church in Greenhaven have died and three others have tested positive for coronavirus.

But some church leaders reject such warnings.

Bethany Slavic issued a press release Friday asserting that the announcement by Sacramento County’s top health official is “believed to be inaccurate and falsely place(s) the emphasis on this church.” The church’s public information office did not respond to requests for comment Friday, but its statement noted that the church closed March 18 and moved all meetings to online sessions.

The county responded to that release Friday with its own statement defending its investigation.

“While we know that the church as a whole has ceased to meet and the leadership is hosting online services, we have been told by multiple sources that there are groups that continue to meet in homes, despite the public health order to not gather with anyone outside of household members,” the county said. “These gatherings have been directly linked to the clusters of cases in the community.

“In no way does Sacramento County condone ridicule, hatred or violence toward this church, any other church or any member of society. The only goal is to gain compliance to the public health order not to gather in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among county residents.”

Some church leaders have simply ignored official directives to avoid large gatherings.

Pastor Doug Bird of the Abundant Life Fellowship in Roseville says the government has no business telling churches to stop services.

“We do feel that if you are showing any signs or symptoms that you should watch online,” the church posted on its Facebook page, explaining why it plans to continue in-person services.

“The Lord has blessed us with a large sanctuary that you can easily practice Social Distance,” the posting says. “Our building hvac system works great and circulates fresh air per Title 24 standards.

“Church is not as usual. But we are still having church. During the COVID-19 crisis, we will not be having Child care/services. We do ask that all family units sit together and that all children are kept close and not running around.”

Bird’s church office said he was not available for an interview Friday, but a video archive of last Sunday’s service shows people are in the audience, including one woman waving a hand covered in a protective blue glove.

Bird, who urges congregants to take communion at the close of the service, scoffs in the video about a sign Roseville officials placed across the street instructing people to “avoid gatherings.”

“We’re an assembly,” he said. “We have a First Amendment right to assemble, and until I see a clear and present danger we’re assembling,” he added, encouraging congregants to fist-bump, “chicken-wing” or simply bow toward one another.

Placer County said Friday it had tried to contact the church without success.

“The governor has indicated that all public gatherings of any size are prohibited,” Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said. “Gatherings are inappropriate in the current environment, especially given what we now know about the possibility of pre-symptomatic transmission of COVID-19.

“We hope that our local religious organizations will continue to worship safely from afar using technology.”

But Bird is hardly alone in ignoring such warnings.

A church in Lodi has taken a similar stance, as have others nationwide.

And the District Church in El Dorado Hills posted photos and a video on Facebook of a service held Wednesday in which dozens of parishioners attended a drive-in movie style service by parking their cars on the church lawn and watching from their vehicles.

Public health officials: avoid large gatherings

Such attitudes have astonished local officials who have implemented states of emergency ordering people to shelter-in-place to avoid greater spread of the disease.

“Continuing to allow large gatherings of people is irresponsible and dangerous,” Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said Friday. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a church or a soccer club or a football group.

“It’s dangerous.”

And one theologian said Friday that following directives that save lives is the essence of religious belief.

“Anything that puts humans in danger is going against the will of God,” said Cecilia González-Andrieu, associate professor of theology and theological aesthetics at Loyola Marymount University. “If we know from medical professionals what is necessary to preserve life, this is a religious act of love to follow (those) guidelines.

“The church is called to look out for the common good.”

Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson on Friday reiterated a message he has been delivering for weeks: Keep your distance. That goes for all groups, including religious groups.

“We have freedom of religion in our society, but it is really important to listen to public health officials,” he said. “Every religion I know of talks about the importance of human life. This order is not the slightest bit against any institution. We would hope people would not have congregant activities.”

He encouraged religious groups to hold Zoom meetings.

“The headline out of all of this is this: At this time of major religious holidays, social distancing is unfortunately the measure that needs to be taken.”

People under any circumstances should not be closer than six feet from each other. In fact, while he said it is acceptable for people to visit their church for personal prayer, those people should make a point of staying far more than six feet from others who may be praying in the church as well.

And they should bring hand sanitizer, so that they can clean their hands immediately on their way out after touching a pew or a door.

Beilenson agreed the rules of the moment cut deeply into the community aspect of church life, and that the restrictions are coming at a major moment in the calendar for many religions. “It is not terribly community-like or friendly, but it is time to be serious about reducing social contact,” he said.

Asked about going to confession, Beilenson said that is a potentially unsafe activity, but he did not say people can’t do it. Instead, he said people should wear a mask. “The better part of valor is to not do it.”

He and other health officials are predicting that social distancing will be in place for at least the month of April, but likely beyond that, depending on when the virus spread peaks and then sufficiently wanes.