Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Florida’s churches, synagogues and mosques, empty for the past two months, may soon welcome back worshippers.
Houses of worship brainstorm reopening amid distancing rules
“It will be a period of readjustment. There will be a lot of joy just seeing people off their computer screens.” Rabbi Andrew Jacobs, Ramat Shalom Synagogue
South Florida’s churches, synagogues and mosques, empty for the past two months, may soon welcome back worshipers. Or they may remain deserted as congregations fear it’s still too soon to gather for God.
The anxiety is well-founded. So many interactions at religious services require human contact: Catholics and Episcopalians drink from a communal chalice during Mass. Jews touch and carry the Torah. Muslims pray shoulder to shoulder.
All faiths socialize after services with snacks and handshakes. But everything is going to look different when congregations reopen their doors soon, including bans on singing and passing the plate in many sanctuaries.
Gov. Ron DeSantis never ordered
houses of worship to close. That leaves it up to congregations to decide when they feel confident they can worship together in a virus-free environment.
Many religious leaders spent the past week meeting with their reopen committees and getting guidance from their denominations about how to resume services safely as the rest of South Florida gets back to business.
“It will be a period of readjustment,” said Rabbi Andrew Jacobs of Ramat Shalom Synagogue in Plantation. “There will be a lot of joy just seeing people off their computer screens. But I would rather be cautious and take it slowly when there is so much we can accomplish virtually.”
Religious leaders say Zoom meetings and services have worked surprisingly well to keep congregations connected during the lockdown. They conducted Mass, led board meetings and Bible study, and even baptized new Christians by proxy in their bathtubs and pools on Easter Sunday.
Still, many observant people prefer human contact as they affirm their spiritual beliefs, especially during the current difficult times.
For many, that means physical contact.
“Our community is very close,” said Nezar Hamze, executive director of the South Florida Muslim Federation. “Hugging is going to happen. I don’t think we can stop that.”
Still, some worship sites are going to try. South Florida’s Episcopal churches will be “posting signs and making announcements about non-contact greetings and to refrain from shaking hands and hugging,” according to a diocese planning document.
Plans also call for maskwearing and temperature checks. Services may be limited to 50 people; if more show up, they may be asked to come back at a different time, said the Rev. Andrew Sherman of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. The church typically has 400 people at Sunday services, he said.
Some churches are deciding what to do with their choirs, whose members are typically in close contact. At the Church of Our Savior in Boynton Beach, the Rev. Rick Rhen-Sosbe said the congregation may go so far as to ban singing.
“Singing and coughing cause droplets to spread,” he said. “I have an older congregation, so the last thing I want to do is expose them.”
Catholic churches in the Diocese of Palm Beach also will not have choirs. They will also do without altar servers, hymnals or public gatherings before or after Mass. The churches will reopen Monday for private prayer and confessions by appointment. On May 25, weekday Mass resumes, and on May 31, traditional Sunday Mass schedules recommence.
The Archdiocese of Miami also is expected to open in late May. Archbishop Thomas Wenski said churchgoers will have to sit six feet apart, so a sanctuary that seats 300 will only be able to accommodate about 50.
The churches will also tell the sick, the elderly and “the scared” not to come, as they will still be able to watch Mass by livestream, he said.
Parishioners and priests will have to wear masks, although priests will be allowed to take them off during their sermons. Parishioners will no longer drink wine from the communal chalice but they will still be able to take the communion wafer from their priests, who will either drop it in the parishioners’ hands or put it on their tongues without physical contact, he said.
“In the early days, we don’t expect to see a huge rush back,” Wenski said. “As time goes on and we understand the virus better, we’ll have a better sense of which measures are necessary and which we don’t have to do.”
St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Boynton Beach may add Saturday services to discourage congregants from packing the pews on Sundays. And the church may divide the congregation up alphabetically to participate in specific services at set times to ensure even distribution throughout the weekend, the Rev. Jovan Davis said.
Guarn Sims, a lifelong member of St. John, said he wants to get back into the sanctuary but said it’s important for church members to see the leadership making visible worship changes, such as intensive cleaning and requiring face masks.
“Most like me are excited to get back inside the walls of what we call the ‘safe haven,’ ” said Sims, a charter school principal. “In the beginning, everyone is going to be a little skeptical. We understand it has to be done in a strategic, obedient manner.”
St. John Missionary may not open until July, Davis said. Catholic and Episcopal churches are considering late May reopenings. Church of Our Savior in Boynton Beach is hoping for a June relaunch.
Potential Church in Cooper City, which typically sees 7,500 congregants at four Sunday services, has not set a reopen date. The Rev. Troy Gramling said he expects a gradual easing of restrictions on attendance, such as walk-through communions at the end of May, and the end of the passing of the plate to gather donations.
“There’s a tension in reopening, and us being able to manage that is important,” Gramling said.