OPEN CHURCHES

The topic of church came up in a recent news report. Since I am a pastor, this topic of church gatherings has long been on my mind. I am thankful that MLA Hal Perry brought up the topic with the premier.

Many of my colleagues in Ontario are now allowed to gather at 30 per cent of capacity and many of my colleagues in B.C. have been allowed 50 people in worship throughout the crisis. In P.E.I. we have had the fewest cases of COVID-19 in Canada and it appears that we have had no community transmission, so why are churches still so regulated?

I have a number of wise and intelligent men on my church council from various intellectual and industry backgrounds. Our church officers have taken great care to ensure the safety of our congregation even before the lockdown began. We have been careful to consider the guidelines from the beginning.

In various conversations over the last months, I have expressed some of my concerns about the spiritual, economic, mental and even health sideeffects of our solutions to COVID-19. Many have paid a heavy price.

My greatest concern in writing this letter is that church authorities are not being trusted. Their authority ought to be affirmed in freely and wisely calling together their congregations in honor of Jesus Christ and in worship of the living God. People need this spiritual sustenance in the public gathering that Christ has called His people to. This becomes increasingly important in times of crisis.

Yet the church is being regulated to a greater extent than commercial businesses. This ought not to be so.

Rev. Nathan Zekveld, United Reformed Church of P.E.I.,

Cornwall