Local places of worship are mostly closed to the public after a week of rapidly changing directives from their head offices and public health.
Father Ian Duffy is the rector of Basilica of Our Lady, which welcomes up to 1,000 people at its 11 o’clock mass on Sundays. On Wednesday, Duffy received word Wednesday from the Hamilton Diocese that all public liturgies were to be cancelled entirely.
“This has never happened before — never,” said Duffy.
Last week, the diocese began putting precautions into place that were similar to those used during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
“Our churches were open but there were instructions of no communion on the tongue, no communion from the chalice, things like that,” said Duffy. “In this parish, canon law does give to an individual pastor the right to dispense his own people from their Sunday obligation and so I sent out a notice to that effect on Saturday morning here.”
It was difficult to convince many of the die hard church goers that they didn't need to come.
“I talked in the past number of days to elderly Catholics, some of whom were in Europe during the war, and they are saying even during the war they never closed the churches, so it’s been completely unprecedented.”
Even with some people staying away on Sunday, the crowd was still about one-third of what Duffy would usually expect.
“People were really good at spreading themselves out around the church so that there wasn’t a big clump of people in any one place,” said Duffy.
“We were still at more than should have actually been here and I think that played into the bishop’s decision,” said Duffy. “The bishop is taking his guidance from the medical authorities and from the government.”
On Tuesday, the government of Ontario announced that gatherings of 50 people or more is prohibited as a response to COVID-19.
That has also complicated other church gatherings, like funerals.
“We aren’t allowed to have funeral masses right now, but we can still do a small service in the chapel or a graveside service with immediate family there. If people want to have a mass later once this is all finished, we can reschedule then,” said Duffy.
The Muslim Society of Guelph made the decision last week to cancel its Friday prayers, which attract about 850 people.
On Tuesday, a decision was made to close the building to the public for daily prayers and to ask worshippers to do their praying at home, said Muhammed Sayyed, president Muslim Society of Guelph.
The society’s daycare and school was also closed to the public.
“This is one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make, because mosques are built to bring people together and we are asking them to stay away,” said Sayyed. “The majority of people are elderly people and they are very sentimentally attached to their church or their mosque. It’s very hard to stop them.”
Even the day after the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting that killed six men, many local Muslims attended Friday prayer.
Sayyed said he had to change the conversation around the current crisis for worshippers, from being a good Muslim by diligently coming to the mosque to being a good citizen.
“Whether you will live or die is up to God, but what we have been educating them is now you are becoming a threat for other people. I understand if you’re not fearful to sacrifice yourself, but this is to help other people. You could be the carrier,” he said.
“Some of their family members who are doctors or nurses are advising their parents not to come to the mosque, but they are still coming,” Sayyed said. “We had to make the tough decision to shut it down completely, following the guidelines by public health.”
Imam Mubeen Butt posted a video to the society’s Facebook page to give guidelines on how to pray.
Sayyed said the Muslim community has responded well and mobilized to help each other, even as the mosque is closed.
“We are offering the service of buying groceries and helping out the seniors,” said Sayyed. “We ask that volunteers have not been travelling, have not been in contact with anyone who has travelled.”
Calls for comment by Beth Isaiah Synagogue on Wednesday were not immediately answered.
Rev. John Borthwick at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church said even in the worst ice storm he can expect about half of his regular congregation to show up.
“These are the kind of people who, during the worst ice storm ever where people say please stay home, if you don’t have to go out, don’t go out — but the little old ladies and older gentlemen will make their way through that ice storm,” said Borthwick. “I kind of hoped when I showed up on Sunday that there would only be a few people who turned up.”
About 50 people showed up for service on Sunday morning.
“The good news in a sanctuary our size is that social distancing wasn’t a challenge, people could spread out quite well. We had hand sanitizing stations at every place, told people not to touch each other and didn’t have out coffee hour or church school and things like that,” said Borthwick.
The day after the Sunday service, St. Andrew’s made the decision to cancel services for a few weeks and to close down public access to the building.
“Part of my decision-making process is if this place is open they will just keep coming, they won’t make that decision on their own,” said Borthwick. “Some of these people have been through the war and things like that, and they think ‘what’s the big deal?’”
Borthwick said there is solidarity in the church-going community to come every Sunday, but he argued there can also be solidarity in not coming.
“Let’s do what’s right for us and for the community by not meeting,” he said.
Borthwick said the St. Andrew’s community has stepped up in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
“I have been really inspired by how our church has been concerned about other organizations that need support and taking care of each other and beyond — of the community as a whole,” he said. “We were always caring, but there is almost an enhanced idea because we are all turning our minds to those who don’t have anyone to talk to or who will be a little more worried or anxious at this time? People in the congregation are doing that.”
St. Andrew’s is looking into next steps on how to continue discussions about the Bible and possibly broadcast its services to the congregation over the internet.
“I think what is neat about it is there are many ways we have talked about doing these things, but never done them,” said Borthwick. “In this crisis, we have been able to focus on these things. I think you’re going to see all of these churches out there that are all of a sudden going to have this massive social media and virtual presence.”
The office at St. Andrew’s is still open in the mornings to take calls and Borthwick is still available to make compassionate visits to those who are in hospital dying, but he noted the hospital is not allowing visitors to people who are sick.
“I have some people in the hospital and I have been told I can’t go visit them — their own family can’t visit them right now,” said Borthwick. “Just trying to maintain connection with those folks is a little more challenging, but we understand the reasons why.”
Like many other institutions around the country, Duffy noted places of worship will be taking a financial hit as a result of COVID-19.
“Most churches rely on what we see on the collection plate on a Sunday morning to keep the place open, to pay our staff, to make insurance payments and hydro payments and everything else,” said Duffy.
“I have no doubt we will find ways to deal with that when we get there,” he said.
