As COVID surges, will Beaufort Co. hold Christmas services in person?
Lynda Hopkins, the ministry assistant at First Baptist Church on Hilton Head Island, wishes the pews could be packed full of people on Christmas Eve.
But as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, that’s just not possible.
The church is limiting capacity for two services on Thursday at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Only 100 slots are available at each. And every other pew will be roped off to ensure social distancing, Hopkins said.
During a normal year, she said over 400 people would have crowded into the building for Christmas Eve.
“We’re doing the best we can,” Hopkins said Wednesday. “COVID or no COVID, we’re still going to celebrate the meaning of the season.”
That presents challenges amid a deadly pandemic, but First Baptist Church isn’t alone in that effort. Local congregations around Beaufort County are working to keep holiday celebrations safe, staff say.
Masks, reservations and Zoom
Several local church leaders on Wednesday told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that Christmas Eve services will be adapted this year.
Pastor Landon Collins of the Baptist Church of Beaufort said his church will host services at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The earlier one will be livestreamed.
Services have been kept at 25% capacity during in-person worship amid the pandemic, he said. The church has a max occupancy of roughly 535 to 540 people, he added.
About 150 congregants and guests can attend each Thursday worship, he said. The church asked people to register beforehand, with 120 seats set aside for those signing up. All of those slots were full as of Wednesday afternoon.
Masks are also required Thursday. People will sing with face coverings on and will go outside to blow out candles, Collins said.
“I haven’t had any anxiety at our church in regard to COVID,” he said. Collins added that the church hasn’t faced major coronavirus-related issues since resuming in-person services in June.
In Bluffton, 6 p.m. worship will be virtual-only at Campbell Chapel AME on Christmas Eve. A bishop for the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church set the COVID-19 policy in South Carolina, allowing worship online or outdoors, Pastor Jon Black said.
“We don’t have a big enough parking lot” to hold services outside, Black said.
That leaves Zoom and Facebook Live, which have already helped Campbell Chapel AME grow in 2020, Black said.
People from Florida, Minnesota and New York have joined the congregation online, he said.
Zoom can handle up to 100 users, he said, and Facebook might draw as many as 600 viewers, although Black isn’t sure if all of those people are actively participating in worship.
Office Administrator Pat Simmons at the Bluffton United Methodist Church, meanwhile, said her church is hosting services at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
The earliest is outdoors, with no capacity restrictions because people can space out in a grassy area while also wearing masks, she said.
The other three services are limited to 80 people each, and registration was required beforehand, Simmons said. Masks will be mandatory indoors, too.
“It’ll be different,” she said. More than 400 people would normally attend worship on Christmas Eve, she said.
The 5 p.m. service will be uploaded online by 7 p.m. for those staying home.
Christy James, church administrator at Lowcountry Presbyterian Church in Bluffton, said leaders there decided to prerecord their Christmas Eve service and upload it to the church’s website by Thursday afternoon.
They’ll also host a drive thru luminaries event from 6 to 7 p.m., if the weather cooperates.
“We are afraid of overcrowding, I guess,” James said, adding that while the church is hosting limited in-person services on Sundays, hundreds of people usually come together on Christmas Eve, which would have presented logistical issues.
At First Baptist Church, Hopkins also said their 5:30 p.m. service will be streamed on Facebook for people who missed out on the limited seats.
“I’m sure those who can’t come will still click the link,” she said. Masks are required indoors, she added. And hand sanitizer will be available.
High stakes
Keeping churches safe during worship Thursday will be crucial in Beaufort County’s fight against the novel coronavirus.
COVID-19 has devastated some congregations around the country, prompting health officials in South Carolina to recommend that residents attend religious ceremonies virtually in the coming days.
“I’ll be staying home this Christmas. … There’s no greater gift than the health of our loved ones,” Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s top epidemiologist, wrote in a statement last week.
The effects of significant COVID-19 transmission in churches have been documented around the country. Dozens of infections, as an example, were recently linked to a North Carolina church’s Christmas event.
But one of the most widely-publicized outbreaks occurred in Washington during the early days of the pandemic. A study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that, after 61 people gathered for a 2 1/2-hour church choir practice in Skagit County in March, 32 confirmed and 20 “probable secondary” COVID-19 cases were traced back to the event. Two people later died.
“This underscores the importance of physical distancing, including maintaining at least 6 feet between persons, avoiding group gatherings and crowded places, and wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain,” the CDC-published study read.
Correction: Photo captions included with an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified a Hilton Head church. The church in photos is St. Francis By the Sea Catholic Church.
St. Andrew By-The-Sea United Methodist Church is not planning indoor Christmas Eve services. It is offering two livestreamed meditations at 9 p.m. and midnight from its Hilton Head campus. It is also offering a “drive-in” service at its Bluffton campus Thursday, according to Facebook. That event is co-sponsored by First Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
