As part of Phase 3 of the Reopen Saskatchewan plan, places of worship in the province were allowed to begin reopening June 8 following guidelines from the government.
The guidelines limit places of worship to a maximum capacity of 30 people — including faith leaders — while following proper protection, physical distancing, and sanitizing measures. They also discourage singing, instrument use, offering baskets, book use, and other activities that potentially promote contact or transmission of respiratory droplets.
“I was part of the task group that helped create the guidelines with an ecumenical group,” said Living Skies regional chair Tricia Gerhard of the United Church. “There are several different denominations and faith groups that were represented in this task group and worked with key representatives from the Covid-19 response team of the government. We were working with two civil servants.”
“For the most part, I think the guidelines as they are right now, reflect our concerns. There are some differences in opinion, in terms of faith groups. I’m quite comfortable with the limited number of people who can be present at worship. Some of the other faith groups were hoping for more numbers and were looking at 50. Quite honestly I’m in a congregation that’s not even thinking of opening again until September at the earliest.”
“The reality is that most of our congregations have a fair number of people who would fall into the vulnerable category due to age,” she said. “Rushing to open over the summer doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, especially given that the number 30 also includes leadership.”
“If the second wave comes into play — like it’s been suggested it will — my fear is bringing everybody back and then having to traumatize people again by saying we have to stop and everybody needs to go back to the way we were when the pandemic started.
With the way places of worship operate compared to other gathering spots that are beginning to reopen, Gerhard says it’s hard to return to normalcy while staying safe with guidelines.
“I’m not surprised by the guidelines because we have a lot to take into consideration with the way we gather,” she said. “People were surprised around the no singing piece because singing is such a large part of what we do, especially in the Christian faith community. That will have an impact on our eagerness to get back together as well. The reality is, a lot of people will choose to remain at home anyway.”
“The reality is worship is a totally different experience than going to a restaurant or to a gym. You’re in close contact with people and in a space for a prolonged period of time. With full on worship you’ve got singing, communal speaking, hand shaking, plate passing, communion, baptisms, and all those things. They increase the risk because it’s high touch and less distance between folks.”
“People are weighing whether or not it makes logical and communal sense to be together when what we do is limited with a faithful respect to the guidelines,” she said.
For those who did return to places of worship, Gerhard says following the rules is imperative to being able to take the next steps with the guidelines.
“It’s about being prudent and cautious with increased cleaning, making sure people are wearing masks, everything is sanitized, and lists of people in the building are kept so if there is an outbreak, contact tracing can happen. This all comes into play on June 8, so most congregations are still just in the planning stages.”
“We (the faith leaders) have agreed to meet weekly at this point to help with the evaluation of the guidelines. Right now they’re seen as quite flexible so as we move into them we’ll adapt them to fit what the experiences are.”
“As the phases of the reopen Saskatchewan plan move along, we’ll also see an increase in numbers for our guidelines as well. We’ll move from 30 to 50 or to whatever number the Saskatchewan Health Authority deem acceptable for congregations,” she said.
Pastor Jonathon Shierman will have to wait a little big longer to start face-to-face preaching at Moosomin Baptist Church with the guidelines making it too difficult for the church to reopen in June.
“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t disappointed,” he said. “But on the other hand, we get it and understand. I think the guidelines are perfectly reasonable, unfortunately they’re not going to work for us to be able to go back to services in person. It’s just not doable for us.”
“It’s not even so much the 30 person limit — we could work with that and hold multiple services, I don’t mind preaching as many times as I need to — it’s more the miscellaneous stuff that comes with it, the extra cleaning and that sort of thing. It’s just not doable with our building the way it is.”
“If they relaxed the rules for churches as we move into Phase 4 or any other time they loosen up the rules, we’ll look at it and reassess,” he said. “But right now things would have to change pretty significantly for me to do something.”
Although the church won’t be reopening in June, Shierman does plan to continue with his virtual preaching to provide his congregation some form of worship.
“I actually just announced to our congregation yesterday (June 3), in a video, that for at least the month of June we’ll still be doing virtual services,” he said. “Mostly everyone is understanding. I haven’t heard from anyone saying that they’re upset that we’re not going back to face-to-face services yet, but I do know everybody is disappointed.”
“In the conversations I’m having with people, everyone is anxious to get back to seeing each other’s faces. Somebody said to me, ‘I’m tired of seeing everyone as a muppet, always from the waist up.’ Everyone is disappointed, but so far nobody has said anything other than, ‘well, we have to abide by the rules that are given to us.’”
It’s not an ideal situation, says Shierman, but he understands why the guidelines are what they are and knows they’ll get back normal eventually.
“We were hoping they’d be a little more relaxed,” he said. “Then when they came out my first reaction was, ‘this thing goes on forever.’ When you read it, all of it does make sense, but as I went from bullet point to bullet point and I just went, ‘that’s another strike that means we won’t be able to do it.’ It’s tough, but I get it.”
“I was on a conference call with a bunch of pastors from Manitoba and it’s especially hard being so close to the border because all of those pastors are currently going back to services. Their guidelines in Manitoba have been more relaxed and allow them to hold services. I’m talking to all these pastors from Manitoba going, ‘I can see you across the border, if we just walked there I could do it!’ There’s the thought of me that wants to get back, but there’s the brain part of me that takes over and says, ‘we’ll get there.’”
