Tom Schaefer: Welcome to worship services in the age of COVID-19

Only one door was open for spiritual business.

Hand sanitizers were stationed outside the nave. Posted signs said masks required. Every other pew, with sanitizing wipes, was roped off. Forty people were scattered throughout the church that usually has more than 100.

Welcome to a worship service in a pandemic.

In-person services at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, which my wife, Mary, and I attend, restarted May 31, two months after businesses, schools and other public places were ordered to close because of COVID-19.

While Roman Catholic churches in the Wichita diocese resumed in-person Masses on May 6, many Protestant churches have remained closed or are offering only online services. Both Jewish congregations in Wichita — Congregation Emanu-El and Ahavath Achim Hebrew Congregation — continue to have weekly services online only.

According to a Pew Research Center poll last month, about half of U.S. adults who typically attended religious services at least once a month last year appear to participate online rather than in person.

Making the decision whether to reopen has been a struggle for many religious leaders. Since March, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in east Wichita has had only online services, but the pastor worries about long-term effects of no Sunday gatherings.

“There is a universal fear about how do we get people back?” the Rev. Jeff Gannon, senior pastor of Chapel Hill, said of a widely held view among clergy he’s visited with. People are getting accustomed to online services, he said, and the likelihood that attendance will return to its previous numbers anytime soon is doubtful.

Although his church is attracting a wider — and larger — audience online, he said, the absence of a community gathering is taking its toll. An elderly member recently told Gannon that he’s struggling with depression. “My Christian community is my reason for living.’’

That loss of community is one reason Gloria Dei restarted services with various health precautions, said the Rev. Peter Jacobson. While the church continues to offer online worship services, it can’t provide all the benefits of an in-person service. Communion, Sunday school, fellowship events — all are shut down or hampered by coronavirus fears. “Observing online is not the same as participating,” he said.

So, how do people of faith weigh the advantages of worshiping in person versus staying safe and viewing a service online?

Mary and I had watched our service online for several weeks early on during the shutdown. But an impersonal computer screen became a less appealing pew. We missed the gathering of our church community, and we hungered for Holy Communion.

When Gloria began offering in-person services, we considered the risks of exposure to the virus. What if we catch it and pass it on to friends or our family? What is our obligation to other people versus our need for spiritual sustenance? It is not an easy decision.

To suggest that every person of faith must follow the same direction is to disparage those who have reached different conclusions about this most important aspect of their lives. If careful steps are taken to protect health — as much as at any public place — shouldn’t churches and other religious groups provide what they’ve always said to be essential: life-sustaining food for the soul within a community of faith?

Mary and I are taking cautious steps back into our church for worship. So much is still missing, so much seems strange. But the message, the Communion meal and the smiling eyes of masked worshipers keep us coming back.