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Justice says gatherings of 25 people guideline doesn’t apply to churches

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Dozens of churches across West Virginia are making plans to return to public worship May 10 after several weeks of online services because of the pandemic.

Gov. Jim Justice

Church gatherings fall under the second week of Gov. Jim Justice’s six-week plan to restart the state’s economy. Justice made it clear during Thursday’s media briefing an existing guideline prohibiting gatherings of more than 25 people at any event in the state does not apply to churches.

“The 25 guideline is not for churches,” Justice said. “It’s for gatherings but it’s not for churches.”

MORE Read guidelines for church gatherings here

Justice’s ‘West Virginia Strong–The Comeback’ has issued a number of guidelines for church services including:

–Adding additional service times to facilitate proper distancing.

–Ensuring all attendees sanitize their hands and put on a mask or face covering before entering the
building.

–Equipping ushers and greeters with gloves and masks.

–Encouraging all attendees who are 65 and older to stay home and watch the services online or provide a “senior service” exclusively for attendees 65 and older to attend in person.

— Ask all attendees who have an underlying at-risk health condition to stay home and watch the
services online.

–Restricting seating to every other pew.

–Ensuring attendees sit with their immediate family unit, use physical distancing between each unit.

–Clergy should dismiss attendees by family unit in order to maintain physical distancing.

–Staff should sanitize seats and frequently used surfaces between services.

–Consider keeping childcare closed, unless the place of worship can comply with CDC guidelines for childcare facilities.

–Consider refraining from passing collection plates and instead provide a central collection box or encourage online giving.

–Consider how the sacraments can be administered without attendees having to touch the same surfaces and objects.

Matt Friend

Leaders at one of the state’s largest churches have decided to not have public services for several more weeks. Bible Center in Charleston is offering services online and on local television. Senior Pastor Matt Friend said they don’t want to rush back for health and safety reasons.

“We can’t control who comes in our doors and so we’re afraid that maybe some of our more devoted people, who may be also our most susceptible demographic may come and we just want to really, really care for them,” Friend said Thursday during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.” We were one of the first churches to close some of our in-person gatherings and we’ll probably be one of the last to open back up.”

Friend said if one person gets sick it’s one person too many.

“We believe Jesus loves the individual and we’re just going to try and be as wise as we possibly can be. We value effectiveness over efficiency,” Friend said.





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