Churches still bound by crowd limits

As the province embarks on a restart plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions, there will be little change for religious gatherings, B.C.’s provincial health officer said Thursday.

Physical-distancing requirements and an order restricting gatherings to fewer than 50 people remain in place in B.C., which means many synagogues, mosques, temples and churches won’t be able to welcome people back. “If you have a very small church, for example, then 50 may be way too many” to allow physical distancing, Dr. Bonnie Henry said.

It’s the same for funeral homes, she said. A small funeral home might be limited to allowing just immediate family — “two or three or five people, depending on what can be managed safely within that environment,” she said.

Those restrictions will be in place through the summer and fall, Henry said. “And of course we’ll reassess as we learn and as we find out what’s happening.”

Premier John Horgan said he, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Henry have conferenced often during the pandemic with faith leaders across the province.

Large facilities can ensure everyone maintains the appropriate physical distance by holding multiple services through the week, Horgan said. “There are a whole bunch of ways that individual faiths will try to address these issues going forward.”

For this weekend at least, places of worship appear to be opening their doors only to small groups, with many encouraging worshippers to turn to online services.

Parishioners of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria, for example, were told that masses would continue to be live-streamed. The Sikh temple on Topaz Avenue live-streams services each morning, and is open daily for individuals to drop in.

For those who want to make communion bread, First Metropolitan United has posted a recipe online.