The move follows a similar announcement by St. John the Divine, an Episcopal cathedral in New York City, where cases are also skyrocketing. The church announced Tuesday that it would move Christmas services to a virtual format.
“As the Cathedral has done before, placing the needs and concerns of the wider community first is crucial,” read a statement on the cathedral’s website.
For the Rev. Ashley Goff, pastor of Arlington Presbyterian Church in Virginia, the issue was hashed out in a conversation she had with the church’s music minister earlier this week. Guided by what she calls a “theology of neighborliness,” she said they pored over local health data, which showed a COVID-19 test positivity rate far above what the church deems acceptable for gathering. They also considered the plight of local hospitals, which experts warn could soon be overrun with patients as the virus continues its unprecedented spread.
Ultimately they were left with the question: “Are we fighting against omicron or enabling it?”
They decided to move services online, she said, because “who we are, how we show up in the world, has the well-being of the neighbor at the center.”
Some churches made the shift even earlier. Washington’s Union Temple Baptist Church posted a Facebook announcement on Saturday declaring all services would be virtual for the rest of the year “due to the rise in COVID cases and out of an abundance of caution.”
Other congregations are sticking with existing plans to worship in person, however. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a sprawling Catholic house of worship in Washington, told RNS it is requiring masks but otherwise intends to hold in-person Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Archdiocese of Washington, which oversees the church, currently recommends abiding by local mask guidelines but has otherwise not suggested dramatic changes to worship.
Meanwhile, faith leaders such as the Rev. Tony Suarez, who runs Revivalmakers and serves as chief operating officer of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, expressed resistance to the idea of suspending in-person worship. He insisted the virus is “real,” noting he contracted COVID-19 in July 2020, and urged people who feel sick to stay home. But as a traveling evangelist, he said he plans to preach on Sunday in what he hopes will be a packed church in Kingsport, Tennessee.
“We worship together, we shop together, we’re going to sports games together, we’re going to the mall together and in certain political climates we’re marching or protesting or rallying together,” said Suarez, who previously served as one of former President Donald Trump’s informal band of evangelical advisers.
“For me, personally, I just don’t understand why there would be any type of concern with worshipping together at this point.”
He acknowledged differences among Christian traditions, saying evangelical Christians and members of the “charismatic, Word of Faith, Pentecostal” community operate in “a very different world than mainline Christianity right now” when it comes to COVID-19 and in-person worship.
