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Vermont’s Catholic churches will be first to reopen statewide June 1 — with a long list of Covid-19 precautions — as most other faith communities are continuing with online offerings as they consider how to return to in-person services.
Gov. Phil Scott, who has prohibited large gatherings since March, is allowing religious facilities to operate if they follow mandatory health and safety requirements and restrict attendance to 25% of approved fire safety occupancy or one person per 200 square feet.
The statewide Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington — Vermont’s largest religious denomination with 118,000 members in 72 parishes — is the only state umbrella organization so far to announce steps for the faithful to return.
Starting on Monday, attending Catholics must be healthy, wear a mask, sanitize their hands, sit 6 feet apart in designated pews and, if required by larger parishes, register in advance to help ensure the 25% capacity limit.
Priests and ushers may not greet or converse with people at the door, musicians should be limited to no more than two and, because singing may increase the risk of viral spread, attendees should listen to rather than join in hymns.
“While these protocols are intrusive,” Vermont Catholic Bishop Christopher Coyne said in a statement Friday, “they are necessary as they allow us to celebrate the sacraments in person while doing our part to help stop the spread of coronavirus.”
The Catholic Church will continue to lift its obligation to attend Mass until further notice, especially for those most susceptible to illness. In the meantime, the diocese is directing parishioners to a special page on its website, which features local information and a daily broadcast Mass.
The Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ, the second largest denomination with 14,000 members in 135 congregations, is allowing individual churches to decide how to reopen while recommending they continue with online services.
“We must think long and hard about whether our desire for in-person worship is more important than those whose lives will be infected,” conference minister the Rev. Lynn Bujnak has written in a public letter. “There is plenty of concerning data that shows that a church service easily spreads the virus to many of those in attendance and then well beyond as those infected come into contact with others outside.”
The United Church of Christ is trying to determine how to hold a service with masks and 6-foot physical distancing and without commonly touched items such as Bibles and hymnals.
“Insurance carriers in many places are providing guidelines regarding liturgical matters such as abstaining from singing and modified routines for serving communion,” Bujnak has written. “Are we prepared to do these things? Will in-person worship with these restrictions and others really feel more worshipful than the ones we offer and attend virtually?”
The United Church of Christ also notes a majority of its members are at a higher risk because of their age or overall health.
“If we open our doors now we are either excluding members and leaders from those services or asking them to put their lives on the line for us,” Bujnak has written. “The Great Commandment calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. How can we do that if we are putting people in vulnerable positions around their health and life?”
The Vermont district of the United Methodist Church, the third largest denomination with 8,200 members in 115 congregations, will continue with online services through at least May before parishes decide their next steps.
“There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer,” Methodist communications director Beth DiCocco says. “It won’t be a conference-wide or statewide decision — it’s up to the individual churches to make for themselves.”
The Episcopal Church in Vermont, the fourth largest denomination with 5,700 members in 47 congregations, will continue to offer daily online prayer as it develops a plan for a “phased return.”
“I know we are all glad to see the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic flagging in our diocese, but I urge you all to remain vigilant,” Bishop Shannon MacVean-Brown has written in a public letter. “For now, we can continue in our commitment as Christians to protect the most vulnerable among us by meeting together online for fellowship and worship.”
American Baptist Churches of Vermont, the fifth largest denomination with about 6,000 members in some 75 congregations, is an association of local, autonomous parishes that are planning individually.
Trinity Baptist Church in Shelburne, for example, is continuing with online offerings while its sister congregation in Williston has resumed in-person services.
“Auditorium seating has been rearranged for spacing to accommodate social distancing,” the Williston church’s Facebook page advises. “If you are symptomatic or in a high risk group please continue watching the live broadcast.”
As for other faiths, the conduit organization Jewish Communities of Vermont, representing a Green Mountain State population estimated as high as 25,000, is continuing to post internet programs and information on its Facebook page.
Most Buddhist sanghas, which don’t have a statewide organization, are continuing with online offerings.
And the Islamic Society of Vermont, which just moved to a new mosque in South Burlington, is limiting attendance to people who wear a mask and register in advance, according to its Facebook page.
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