Eight pages of guidance have been released by Governor Tate Reeves outlining what steps churches can take to safely resume in-person gatherings. Many churches have practiced shelter-in-place services for nearly two months. Now, the Governor says church leaders are ready to reopen the doors, but they want guidance. “You don’t have to rush back," says Reeves. "We do want to provide a playbook for the best way to do it as safely as possible, but we want our pastors to determine when that time is right.”
Sean Parker is the Executive Director of Mississippi’s Southern Baptist Convention. He says churches reopening under the new guidance could look very different from normal Sunday services. Parker says some of the changes would include “Offering plates are not going to be passed. They need to anticipate that there would not be choir, but that music would be lead perhaps by a soloist, and there might be more services than typical to allow the allowance of people that might be able to be in the sanctuary.”
Some denominations are providing their churches with additional guidance. Jasmine Haynes is with the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church. She says the denomination’s guidelines recommend churches continue shelter in place activities through the rest of the month.
“And that’s also an evaluative point because conference leadership wants to make sure that they are watching and prayerfully considering all kinds of healthcare data and CDC data for this projection," says Haynes. "Because if there’s a need to adapt that date further out then that’s fine.”
Governor Reeves says he wants to remind residents that these are just guidelines and not mandates. He says he would prefer people to wait until June to resume services. The Governor says he and his family, for now, will continue to worship from home.
