On Friday May 29, Governor Chris Sununu shared a document, Stay at Home 2.0: Places of Worship, that ostensibly allows houses of worship to begin re-admitting worshippers to their sacred spaces for religious services only. I am grateful that the Governor takes seriously the particular complexities of risk and demand that we all face as we contemplate gathering again for religious services. The Governor’s order is informed by the advice of health professionals, immunologists, as well as members of various religious communities in New Hampshire.
Though Governor Sununu has stated that, effective immediately, houses of worship can re-open at 40% capacity, even a cursory read of the document will show how careful and deliberate our churches need to be in preparing for our return for in-person worship. There are at least 19 requirements, none of them trivial, that must be met before we can come back into our sanctuaries. They include sanitizing of hands and all touched surfaces, limiting the number of persons who can gather indoors, controlling traffic flow and space between persons who are not of the same household, restricting how communion might be distributed and how our holy objects can be venerated. There are strict guidelines for ushers, collections, exchanging the peace, and post-worship gatherings. We will also need to be especially careful about communal singing.
Along with many of our fellow denominations we will use at least the coming month (until at least July 1st) for each of our congregations to discern carefully whether and how we will apply the guidance offered by the Governor’s office and the most current information provided by the Center for Disease Control to our local church communities.
Again, I request that we take the month of June for our local vestries and Bishop’s committees to begin to make plans for their eventual and gradual re-introduction of in-person worship. Please be aware that given the tenacity of this pandemic, and the fact that people in New Hampshire are still being infected and are succumbing to Covid-19, this timeline may need to be extended.
In the coming days, we will begin to determine in more detail the practicality of limited outdoor services, including weddings and funerals.
The Governor’s document covers only religious services. Since we know the coronavirus does not discriminate among us, I also request that we put the same rigorous measures in place for any outside groups, including Twelve Step assemblies, until July 1.
The risks of our gathering too soon and without establishing the necessary precautions far outweigh the benefits of our return from this “COVID-19 Exile.” Meanwhile, as the Governor’s order stresses, we will continue to provide on-line worship opportunities to encourage our people to stay safe at home.
Be assured, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is still being heard and enacted, God’s holy realm is proclaimed and extended, and we continue to walk the Way of Love for our God and neighbor in this wilderness time together.
Faithfully Yours in Christ,
The. Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld
Bishop of New Hampshire