Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Goleta opened its sanctuary last Sunday for the first time in more than two months, thanks to a new order moving Santa Barbara County from the purple tier to the less restrictive red tier in the state’s color-coded COVID-19 reopening structure and allowing houses of worship to reopen their doors — with precautions.
“It was fantastic!” Pastor Keith Jones said, adding that he was thrilled to have an audience after months of preaching to empty pews.
Congregants wore masks, yet Jones said he delighted in the nodding heads and expressive eyebrows.
“It was great for me, but also important for congregants to connect with each other and experience the physical, spiritual space,” he said.
The pastor said he even received a note from a member who watched the livestream from home, writing how meaningful it was to see the church filled with people again.
The COVID-19 red tier allows churches, chapels, synagogues and temples to open with an indoor occupancy limited to 25 percent or 100 people, whichever is less. Outdoor occupancy is restricted by the natural limits of the venue that allow for social distancing of 6 feet between people from different households.
Jones said his church had several dozen attendees, with space for more, yet recognized that not everyone is ready for in-person prayer.
“Regardless of where you are on the spectrum of safety, Good Shepherd will be with the gathered and the scattered,” he said. “If people need to stay at home, we will continue to bring the gospel to them.”
(Ann Pieramici / Noozhawk photo)
The gospel also was shared miles away at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, where nearly 250 people gathered indoors, on the back patio, or inside their cars with the radio tuned to Scripture.
“It was so healing,” Pastor Tommy Schneider said. “Whether you have faith or not, people have felt so isolated during COVID, so it was a really special blessing to be together.”
Schneider told Noozhawk that Calvary Chapel will retain its livestream services and televised show on KEYT, enabling homebound congregants or those not ready to return to still participate.
“We love our city, and we want to be an encouraging place that comes together and lifts up and supports Santa Barbara,” he said.
Although Santa Barbara County now allows for modified indoor prayer, not all houses of worship are opening so quickly.
“The reopening option is not impacting how we hold our services,” the Rev. Aimée Eyer-Delevett of All Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church said.
The Montecito church offers prayer services via Zoom nearly every day of the week as well as a Sunday broadcast that is pre-recorded to integrate videos, readings and prayers from congregants at home. Though challenging, Eyer-Delevett emphasized the significance of being home.
“Home is where we practice our faith most frequently, it’s where our religious formation takes place, and it’s where we are most challenged to maintain our loving kindness with God,” she said.
The main sanctuary at All Saints is under construction, and the temporary parish is too small to socially distance, making indoor services impractical.
“As much as we long to be together, our first priority is to keep each other safe, particularly the most vulnerable among us,” Eyer-Delevett said.
(Ann Pieramici / Noozhawk photo)
First United Methodist Church in Santa Maria also has decided to continue offering online-only worship through the end of December.
“Many of our members are in the high-risk category,” Pastor Bob Isip said. “We feel that the health and well-being of our congregation is paramount during the pandemic, and unless there is a proven vaccine, we may extend our virtual services into 2021.”
Pastor Benji Bruneel of Santa Barbara Community Church said his church will continue operating outdoors for now.
“We have a setting in our outdoor park that allows us to gather in as safe a way as possible, enabling us to care for the members of our church and of our greater community,” he said.
Congregants bring their own chairs and umbrellas, and tents have been set up for larger families. Participants are required to wear masks while entering and exiting, and when singing together. Capacity is limited to about 130 congregants, with two Sunday services offered. Members are required to register and reserve tickets in advance to ensure the church is meeting the guidelines for social distancing. Bruneel said that most of the 1,500 members still tune in from home via the livestream or recorded YouTube services.
Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara has been holding life cycle events such as births, deaths, and bar and bat mitzvahs for several months, adhering to strict safety guidelines. With the new order, the synagogue will increase capacity at the ceremonies from 18 to 25 total participants.
“Congregation B’nai B’rith is being very cautious,” Executive Director Elizabeth Gaynes said. “Many of our congregants are elderly or in high-risk categories, and we want to be as inclusive as possible. We have created a task force that will continue meeting at least once per month as long as we remain in the red tier, to evaluate whether it’s safe to reopen for our weekly Shabbat service.”
For now, the temple will maintain Zoom services and ongoing virtual programming, including lectures, workshops, book groups and Torah study.
The red tier indicates “substantial” spread of the virus, with four to seven new cases daily per 100,000 residents, or 5 percent to 8 percent of test results reported positive over seven days.
Gaynes said she doesn’t want to be in a position of having to police members for COVID-19 protocols. Instead, the synagogue serves as a spiritual home focused on supporting the health and safety of its members.
While the move to the red tier did not trigger reopening for religious services at Congregation B’nai B’rith, it has allowed the temple to start meeting in person for Jewish Learning Programs, which welcomes students in kindergarten through 12th grade to campus once per month, on staggered schedules and in groups of 10 or fewer, for religious studies. In addition, the temple’s preschool has been operating since the summer with precautions.
— Ann Pieramici is a local freelance writer.
