In the midst of what can be a confusing scene, the leaders of some church groups have made their views abundantly clear, as they have railed against any mandates that would prevent people from attending their churches.

In their eyes vaccine mandates would represent placing the authority of the Government over the authority of God.

Claims like these, coming from a minority of largely conservative Christians, are never as straightforward as they seem since they stem from vaccine hesitancy and on occasion explicit anti-vaccine sentiments.

Nevertheless, they touch on important issues for churches in general as all will have to decide whether or not to allow the unvaccinated into services.

To turn people away from services goes against all that most churches stand for.

But it is unfortunate that much of the well-publicised opposition to vaccine mandates is based on the rights of individuals and the freedom to express themselves as they wish.

An emphasis far more congenial to Christian thinking is the opposite, and that is to protect the health and wellbeing of all within the community — both within the church and in wider society.

There is no hint in Christian thinking that the authority of the church is superior to the authority of government.

Ideally, they work alongside one another respecting each other and endeavouring to achieve what is best for all within society.

Biblical values emphasise the love of neighbour; service of others; support for widows and orphans — in our society this translates into support for the vulnerable, those unable to fend for themselves, those with compromised immune systems, the elderly and the very young, and especially those with chronic health conditions.

There is a communitarian thrust to Christian teaching, pointing towards the welfare of others, inside and outside the church.

In the midst of a serious pandemic, individual churches have to determine their own policies regarding vaccine mandates.

Since Covid-19 is a serious public health problem, the vaccinated/non-vaccinated dichotomy cannot be ignored by allowing everyone to act as they wish.

In public health terms, everyone in a church community is affected by the actions of everyone else.

No one is an island and so the decisions of each person have an influence on everyone else.

Individual interests are never to dominate, as clearly brought out by core biblical teaching to love God and one's neighbour and each of us is responsible for looking after those around us, in health terms as well as in spiritual terms.

If a government were to impose vaccine mandates on churches, churches should find alternative ways of meeting together, including in people's homes and on occasion in the open air.

Meeting as the people of God extends far beyond physical meeting together in a formal church setting, normal and healthy as that may be under most circumstances.

Vaccination is not a private matter since it impacts everyone else within a community.

In this sense, it is of considerable interest to the church as a whole. However, all are to respect each individual's position, no matter how much they disagree with it.

All are members of the body of Christ, and judgement belongs to God alone.

Not only this, we are all flawed, and from time to time we all make unwise decisions.

Since this is a public health emergency, people cannot act entirely as they wish; they are to act responsibly by public health standards.

Hence, if the church is prepared to allow the non-vaccinated into church services, the non-vaccinated have an obligation to be able to demonstrate that they are not infected, that is, to have negative Covid tests.

This should be possible once rapid antigen tests become available.

In fact, a large church may wish to insist on this for everyone, including the vaccinated if the infection rate in their area is very high.

All are to think of how their views and attitudes affect others, particularly those with a different position from their own.

Pay regard to the ‘‘weaker'' members of the church community, no matter how the weaker member is defined within the context of vaccination.

Who are those most in need of support?

A good deal of trust is required all around, showing ample grace and love towards each other.

In the final analysis, the church leaders have responsibility for the health and safety, and the welfare of all within a church building.

This is a general principle, extending far beyond Covid-19 considerations.

• Gareth Jones is Emeritus Professor in the anatomy department at the University of Otago.
• First published in the ODT. Republished with permission of the author.

Following the prime minister's announcement Mass - restricted to 100 people - is able to resume from this Friday at noon.

On Monday night Steve Lowe, Bishop of Hamilton and New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference Secretary, said the bishops will issue a Pastoral Letter on Tuesday.

He said each parish will decide what is manageable and safe for their community including whether any particular weekday or Sunday Mass resumes.

The guidelines for the reception of Holy Communion and health practices during a pandemic remain in place.

Lowe said not all parishioners will be able to attend Mass because of the restrictions of numbers.

Others will not attend due to health reasons, concerns or fears. For these reasons, the dispensation of attendance at Sunday Mass continues.

Live-streamed Masses will continue to be offered for these people.

Last week the New Zealand Catholic Bishops wrote to the Prime Minister urging the Cabinet to raise the limit on numbers allowed at religious services to at least 100.

Their strongly-worded letter followed the New Zealand Police issuing guidelines saying religious services are allowed under COVID-19 Alert Level 2 as long as people sit in multiple groups of ten.

The limit has now been raised but the other guidelines for gatherings at Alert Level 2 remain in force.

Uncertainty remains about what these guidelines are.

Official COVID-19 website, which has not been updated since Monday's press conference, states that all public venues:

• Must keep high hygiene standards
• Must keep records to enable contact tracing and manage their numbers to ensure that:
• Every individual or group of 10 is kept 1 metre apart
• No group has more than 10 people.

According to the most recent police guidelines issued on 22 May:

If everyone kept 2m apart at any religious service it would not be a gathering.

If that is not the case:

• People must keep 2m apart but family or whanau who reside together in their household may remain within 2 metres of each other.
• If the venue size allows, multiple groups of 10 can be present so long as each group remained two metres apart. This rule does not apply to funerals and tangihanga.
• Appropriate contact tracing needs to be kept except for gatherings of friends and whanau
• People must comply at all times with the distancing restrictions and cannot, for example, mingle more widely at the end of a service.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• catholic.org.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• rnz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: screenshot oklahoman.com

In a recent reader survey we conducted with 1,649 responses, slightly over half of the congregations had only one worship service on Sunday morning, and the times of that single service varied.

The "sacred hour" of 11:00 am is no longer the worship time for a majority of churches.

Though we don't have definitive information on the origin of the 11:00 am worship time, it appears to be related to an agrarian society.

We started our services late in the morning so the farmers could milk the cows and do necessary farm chores.

So what are the trends in worship service times? Our information is based upon the survey we noted above as well as anecdotal data derived from our interaction with thousands of churches.

1. Churches with multiple Sunday morning services will soon be in the majority. This trend, once more common with larger churches, is now taking hold in congregations of all sizes.
2. The 11:00 am worship service is no longer the designated time for a majority of churches. The so-called sacred hour of worship is not sacred in most churches. This change started slowly, but it is pervasive now.
3. Earlier Sunday morning services are gaining in popularity.Worship services with start times from 7:00 am to 8:30 am are growing in many churches. This trend seems to be related to the growth of empty-nest boomers.
4. The growth in the number of non-Sunday primary services is steady but slow. There has not been a huge upsurge in the number of primary services on a day other than Sunday. The steady growth, however, is an indication that this approach will soon be common in many churches. Continue reading

Sources

• Rainer on Leadership
• Image: Christ Church Creekmoor

"Clergy should aim to keep the time of worship to no more than 50 minutes," Gledhill said, opining that worship has become "too complicated, leaving people who are not regular churchgoers feeling confused and excluded."

"One of the reasons for our recent decline in churchgoing is we are not making the occasional worshipper feel welcome."

"You have got to be quite tough to come to some of our services if you are not a regular attender. We're praying for longer and we're singing for longer."

Most religious leaders say Sunday morning church services already have to compete with shopping, lying in bed, or taking the day off, and the idea of spending two hours dedicated to worship is not very appealing in today's society.

One blog reported that people who are in favor of longer church services frequently use the argument that "we need to give God the time that he deserves. If we can make time for everything else, we can make time for God."

"In my opinion, being in service for 3 hours on Sunday is not a badge of honor. It means that there are a lot of people in your church that waste a lot of time during service," said Clifton Holmes, a Christian writer for the Gospel Blog.

"There is no point in any of us bashing people for how much or how little time they spend in church on Sunday. If you really want to score points and find favor with God, then focus on how much time you spend with him outside of the walls of your cathedral, worship center or sanctuary."

Research conducted over the last year by anonymous worshippers for the church website Ship of Fools found some Anglican clergy are preaching for as long as 42 minutes. Throw in songs of praise, fellowship and prayer and the worshipping public spends about two hours in church.

Bishop Gledhill said there had been a tendency to devise "more and more intricate and beautiful services for our own use, forgetting those who might come if we made things simpler for them to start with."

He said that clergy need to make sure that their sermons are not too long, arguing that people's "attention spans aren't what they used to be."

Last year the Vatican told catholic clergy to keep their sermons under eight minutes to cater for people who found it hard to concentrate for long periods.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Christian Post
• Image: The Tribune