Some religious services ready to resume in Sudbury

After three months with its doors closed and offering online services, All Nations Church in Sudbury will welcome congregants once again this weekend. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, places of worship in Ontario have been closed by provincial order. But starting Friday, religious services are permitted to resume — while following physical distancing measures, and operating at no more than 30 per cent capacity. 

"Church is all about relationships, and we were not seeing one another," said Mike Tulloch, executive pastor at All Nations Church.  

"So that's the excitement or the buzz that's created in our congregation this week, is the chance for at least some of us to get back together."

Religious leaders, like Tulloch, are re-imagining what their services will look like, with some preparing to resume services right away, and others opting to take a slower approach.

'A different experience'

When people show up at All Nations Church this Sunday, they will be greeted by ushers who will show them to their seats — ensuring at least two meters between all individuals or household groups. 

The church will restrict its occupancy to just over 200 people. Its usual capacity is 700, and Tulloch says there are often 450 to 550 people at a typical service. He says the church has heard from a number of members, particularly seniors, who plan to continue to watch from home for the time being. 

"We've already pre-conditioned our congregation that they may, you know in the worst case, they may not be able to get in. But I guess that's no different than if we had a church of 200 seating capacity and 250 showed up. So it's just a new normal for us," Tulloch said.

Meanwhile at Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church, plans are in place to resume in-person services next weekend. The church has new procedures in place, at the direction of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario. 

All congregants will be required to wear masks, the congregation will not sing, and there will be hand sanitizer available. People will also have to pre-register for the services, to ensure the capacity is not exceeded.

Members will remove their masks only briefly, to receive communion, which will be placed into their hands, rather than onto their tongues. 

Fr. Sam D'Angelo says the service will "definitely be a different experience," but nonetheless he's looking forward to welcoming people back. 

"Especially for people who have longed to receive communion and were not able to do so, this is certainly a great consolation for them. Even though they may have to make other sacrifices like not singing, and not maybe sitting next to their friends."

Cautious approach

While some religious groups are eager to resume, others are moving more slowly to reopen — including Sudbury's Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue. 

Board president Emily Caruso Parnell says the synagogue is taking a cautious approach, based on advice from the Toronto Board of Rabbis, as well as other groups.

"You know certainly in places where they've reopened and some places in the states it's led to a spike in cases, so we just aren't, the advice we've received is just to wait a couple more weeks and see how this all goes before we decide to restart services," Caruso Parnell said. 

With a large space and fairly small community, Caruso Parnell says the capacity and physical distancing measures shouldn't be a problem. However she said there are details to work such as regulating the flow of traffic in and out of the building and increased sanitization. 

She said the synagogue is usually fairly quiet in the summer months anyway, which "gives us some breathing room in terms of figuring this out."

St. Andrew's United Church will also likely wait until the summer is over to resume in-person services, according to church council chair Phil Thurston. However Thurston said an emergency planning group will be meeting over the coming weeks, and will make a recommendation to church council later in the month.

Continuing online services

In the meantime, Thurston hopes the congregation will continue to tune in online to watch the church's online services, which he says have been very popular throughout the pandemic.

"It's actually gone very well. We are seeing more people dialling into YouTube than we normally get on a Sunday morning," Thurston said. 

The success of online services is something D'Angelo and Tulloch say they've also been pleased with at their churches. Both say they plan to make the online services permanent, even after the pandemic is over.