• Latest
  • Trending
churches pew

Hit Hard by COVID, Some Black Churches Reluctant to Resume In-Person Worship

October 7, 2021
jesus statue Christ the Redeemer

Why Is There Christianity If Jesus Was Jewish?

September 21, 2023
JoAnne Epps

Temple University Acting President JoAnne Epps Dies Suddenly on Campus

September 20, 2023
UMC Bishop Minerva Carcano in a 2008 file photo

UMC Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño Suspended, Faces Church Trial

September 20, 2023
doctors

Just 2 Percent of US Doctors Are Latina. These Women Want That to Change.

September 20, 2023
COGIC Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard

Head of Major Black Christian Group Backtracks on Mormon Partnership, Apologizes for Causing ‘Discontent’

September 18, 2023
Slavery memorial at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Christian Seminary Founded by Enslavers Thankful for Forced, Unpaid Labor

September 18, 2023
Kirk Franklin and Richard Hubbard

Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years

September 18, 2023
Pastor Kevin Smith

Pastor Kevin Smith Is First Black Man in SBC Org’s History to Serve as Chairperson

September 18, 2023
vehicle car

Here’s How to Donate a Car to Charity and Write It Off as a Tax Deduction

September 13, 2023
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
Haiti

Christians Plea for Prayer, Help Amid Haiti’s Surging Gang Violence

September 12, 2023
Coco Gauff prayer

Coco Gauff Talks Faith After US Open Win: I Don’t Pray for Results; I Pray for Strength.

September 12, 2023
Faithfully Magazine
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Black Christian Content
  • Log In
Donate
No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Black Christian Content
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
Home Churches

Hit Hard by COVID, Some Black Churches Reluctant to Resume In-Person Worship

FM Editors by FM Editors
October 7, 2021
in Churches, Features, Health, Spotlight, Wellness
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
churches pew

(Photo: Brett Sayles/Pexels)

ShareTweetPin It

By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

(RNS) — The pastor of a New York church that has halted in-person meetings since the coronavirus pandemic hit last year predicts the predominantly Black congregation won’t gather inside its sanctuary until the start of next year.

A Pennsylvania minister is counting on warm fall weather to allow some of her congregants to meet for worship outside in October, as it did two Sundays in September.

And a Virginia megachurch leader has twice met with his congregants at Maryland outdoor venues — usually reserved for concerts and football games — but doubts regular in-person worship will happen before December.

RelatedArticles

man reading book in front of LED cross

Black Churches Fight Florida’s Whitewashing of US History in Sunday School, Sermons and Bible Study

September 9, 2023
gray concrete church

Christian and Atheist Nonprofits Vie Over NJ Law Banning Public Funding of Churches

August 19, 2023

While many congregations have been back to worship for weeks and months, often masked and socially distant, some African American clergy continue to hold off on in-person services. Others have found that when they do open, most members continue to watch the livestreamed services from home.

“Every church has to make a decision on where they believe the line of safety is,” said the Rev. Howard-John Wesley of Alexandria, Virginia. “And in our mind, one member contracting COVID on the grounds of Alfred Street would be more than we believe glorifies God.”

Alfred Street Baptist Church has faced two realities during the pandemic: Virtual services are successfully attracting members, and people are continuing to die from the coronavirus, including a variant Wesley said recently took the life of a 39-year-old church member.

Wesley said his church is erring on the side of caution — and many of his colleagues are coming to the same conclusions.

“We compare that to the imagery you see of evangelical white conservative Christians that have their churches back open and are erring on the side of ‘faith,’ and that God will protect us,” Wesley said. “I think you have just a different perspective within African Americans.”

The Rev. Leslie Callahan’s St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia capped attendance at its two outdoor September services, announcing a maximum of 75 mask-wearing worshippers. She said about 35 attended one service and 50 were at the other, while fellow members watched online.

“COVID has been harder on us,” she said of African Americans. “Black people know people who’ve died. Black people know people who are sick now.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in early September that Black Americans are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as white Americans, a finding that was also reported by the National Urban League in its 2020 “State of Black America” report.

Those kinds of statistics — and the emergence of new virus variants — contribute to the cautious approach on the part of some ministers, their reopening task forces and the people they have surveyed who are currently not in the pews.

“I wanted to open in September, and I met with our people and they weren’t ready to come back,” said the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, New York, noting questions about the need for a booster shot added to the already mounting concerns about variants. He stopped considering a November opening and pushed plans back two more months.

Richardson, who also is the chair of the Conference of National Black Churches, said he’s aware of larger churches that are not planning to open until the start of 2021. And while some churches have seen increasing numbers of attendees online, other churches in the seven CNBC-affiliated denominations have had to close because their leaders did not have the finances or the skillsets to pivot to the new technology needed to survive.

Richardson said smaller churches that are continuing to offer services online find that when they do open for in-person worship, they get substantial attendance initially, followed by a steep decline. He said he is not aware of any Black church that has more than 40 percent of its pre-pandemic in-person attendance.

“The issue is that, yes, you can open the church, but if the atmosphere, the climate, is not conducive for people to come back, you just open the door and they won’t be there.”

Earlier this year the hesitancy of African Americans to return to worship — especially when they could keep watching and giving online — was evident in some pandemic-related research.

The Pew Research Center observed the slow return to in-person worship among historically Black Protestant congregations in a March survey, its most recent data available on the topic.

More than a quarter (28%) of Black people who regularly attend services said their congregations should be closed due to the pandemic, compared to 9% of white people and 14% of Hispanic Americans. Similarly, fewer African American congregants (30%) said they were “very confident they can attend safely,” compared to 36% of Hispanic attendees and 53% of white attendees.

Asked about any continuing racial divide among megachurches and smaller congregations, sociologist of religion Scott Thumma said, “My sense is that there is greater hesitancy among mostly mainline churches, as well as Black and Latino churches that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus and have had less access to vaccines.”

Thumma, whose Hartford Institute for Religion Research recently received a $5 million grant to study COVID-19 and its effect on congregations, said most African American megachurches he has researched have started meeting in person while also holding online worship services. But some smaller congregations in his area of Connecticut have not started in-person gatherings.

The Rev. Kip Banks, pastor of a Washington, D.C., church and a senior consultant for Values Partnership who works with Black pastors across the country, said his church, which returned to offering in-person services in September, has about 200 active members, with about 70 attending online each week and about 40 to 50 in person.

“Even for those that have gone to hybrid format, the majority of worshippers are still online, and you find that across the board,” said Banks, pastor of East Washington Heights Baptist Church. “The church has to make a major adjustment to online worship. It’s with us to stay.”

Though some Black churches are shuttered for in-person worship, they have often continued other rituals and traditions beyond Sunday morning. Wesley said he has officiated at about a dozen weddings since the pandemic started, in locations such as museums and art districts, though most have been postponed. And he said his church has conducted a few funerals, requiring families to determine which 50 people can attend the service — and there’s a “different kind of feel” with required mask-wearing and social distancing. Wakes are held in the narthex, just inside the doors of the church, instead of in the sanctuary.

“We only allow one family in at a time while we do that,” he said.

Richardson said his church, at the height of the pandemic, was giving away food to 500 families a week and still aids a few hundred each Wednesday, having turned a building on its property into a storage and distribution facility.

“The African American churches have been centers for distribution of food, vaccinations and testing,” he said. Even at a time when they haven’t been able to be open for worship services, “they’ve become real centers of service in the community.”


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
Advertisement
Ancestry US
ShareTweetPin It
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

More Features

doctors
Wellness

Just 2 Percent of US Doctors Are Latina. These Women Want That to Change.

September 20, 2023
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married
News

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
Christian Group Denounces Apocalyptic Cult Leader After Hundreds Reportedly Starve to Death to Meet Jesus
Web Exclusives

Christian Group Denounces Apocalyptic Cult Leader After Hundreds Reportedly Starve to Death to Meet Jesus

September 12, 2023

Discussion about this post

Most Shared Articles

  • Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?...
  • Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years...
  • Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death...
  • Coco Gauff Talks Faith After US Open Win: I Don’t Pray for Results; I Pray for Strength....
  • Newark Pastor Timothy Huff Left in Critical Condition After Being Shot in Home...
  • Churches Asked to Ring Bells in Remembrance of Little Girls Killed in Birmingham Church Bombing...

From The Archive

Google
Technology

Minnesota Police Got Search Warrant for Everyone Who Googled a Victim’s Name

by FM
March 17, 2017
bible gun Brazil
Features

Religious Gang Leaders Say They’re Waging Holy War in Brazil

by FM Editors
November 22, 2017
Pakistan flood
News

6,000 Police, Troops Deployed After Muslim Mob Attacks Christian Community in Pakistan

by FM Editors
August 20, 2023
relief sculpture
Opinion & Analysis

Why We Call Them ‘Church Fathers’ and ‘Desert Mothers’

by FM Editors
September 22, 2022
Courageous Conversations
Features

Black Scholars and Pastors to Face Off on Sexuality, Justice, and More at ‘Historic’ Event

by Charlotte Beard
August 4, 2018
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.

Recent News

  • Why Is There Christianity If Jesus Was Jewish?

Category

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

  • News
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Inspiration
  • Web Exclusives
  • Specials
  • Shop
  • Events
    • FM Live Events
    • Community Events
  • Black Christian Content Links
  • About Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Log In to Your Faithfully Magazine Partner Account
No Result
View All Result

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering on our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend