Some of Fort Worth’s largest churches moving online as COVID surges. Most others aren’t.
The leaders of Fort Worth’s First United Methodist Church gathered on a Zoom call Tuesday for the weekly meeting with a public health expert they’ve been having for months during the coronavirus pandemic. But the feeling, among those participating, was this was not an ordinary check-in — because this is not an ordinary time.
Church leaders made the decision to halt all in-person services and classes until it’s safe to hold them again, according to Senior Pastor Tim Bruster. The expert, whom Bruster didn’t identify but noted holds a doctorate in public health, spoke of the alarming rates of hospitalizations in North Texas that could overwhelm facilities and lead to a dire situation like the one El Paso is dealing with. That was enough for First United Methodist to go to online only, like it did back in March, Bruster said. The move took the church, he said, “from a place of low risk to no risk.”
Though the church had implemented more restrictive safety measures, from making masks mandatory for everyone to installing plexiglass in front of the choir, leadership believed a bigger, albeit more painful, change was necessary.
“If possible right now, people oughta stay home and keep our community safe,” Bruster said in a phone interview. “We don’t want to have a situation where we’re having to set up a field hospital.”
The church, he said, didn’t find out until later the decision was in-line with the urgent advice from Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who on Tuesday pleaded with churches to move to online services as coronavirus infections have been rocketing across the county.
First United Methodist is joining some churches in Fort Worth that have stayed online only, like the New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church led by Pastor Kyev Tatum. He told KDFW-TV this week the church won’t end its quarantine until 30 to 60 days after a vaccine is distributed.
Trinity Episcopal Church also announced in an email Saturday that it is canceling its outdoor worship service and holding an online-only service this Sunday to comply with urgent stay-at-home requests from Fort Worth city and Tarrant County leaders. The church will notify members when in-person services will resume.
“The best way to show love for our neighbors at this crucial time is to protect those who are vulnerable,” Trinity Episcopal said in the email. “Churches throughout the county are temporarily suspending in-person worship to limit the possibility of spreading the virus.”
But these churches are at odds with many of Fort Worth’s largest churches that are continuing with in-person services as COVID cases and hospitalizations hit levels never before seen in Tarrant County.
In-person services are continuing at the Gateway Church in north Fort Worth, according to its website. The church, which has thousands of members and 850 employees, has been limiting its 4,100-seat auditorium to 1,800 seats, spokesman Lawrence Swicegood told the Star-Telegram in the middle of October. There were multiple COVID cases reported among staff at the time.
Videos of this past Sunday’s service posted to the church Facebook page show people preaching and singing into microphones, mask-less, with cheers and applause from the crowd audible in the background.
Swicegood said in an email he didn’t want to provide a comment for this story.
“We will pass on this interview,” he wrote in an email.
In-person Sunday services are also continuing at City Life Church, a large downtown institution serving thousands of members, according to its website and Facebook page. The church didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Fellowship Church in Fort Worth is allowing people to sign up on its website to attend services. The House, another mega-church, is continuing with in-person events and this past Sunday had a live-streamed service featuring a crowd excitedly cheering as pastors spoke and people played Christian rock music, not wearing masks.
The decisions that churches are making, and the precautions they’re taking, are coming as the COVID-19 pandemic hits record levels ahead of Thanksgiving. Tarrant County reported a record 2,112 new COVID cases on Wednesday and followed that with 1,777 cases on Thursday, the second-highest total. The county announced 16 deaths in those two days. More than 1,400 cases and four more deaths were reported Friday, and more than 1,300 cases and two deaths on Saturday.
Leaders of other religious institutions across the county, from synagogues to mosques, are having to weigh the same questions that churches are asking, looking at coronavirus trends, the advice of health experts and, finally, what they’re comfortable with allowing.
The Beth-El Congregation of Fort Worth, a synagogue, hasn’t had in-person services since the start of the pandemic. A representative said in a Facebook message the synagogue has been “exceedingly cautious” and has only been hosting outdoor or virtual events.
Congregation Ahavath Sholom is holding in-person morning and evening services on weekdays that are also live-streamed, according to Rabbi Andrew Bloom. The first three rows of the sanctuary are blocked off, he said over the phone, and anyone who wants to attend has to RSVP beforehand. Masks are mandatory and attendees have to have their temperatures taken.
During Yom Kippur in mid-September, Bloom said, the synagogue allowed up to 100 people to attend its services but only a little more than half of that number wound up coming. Only around 15 people have been showing up to the weekday services, he said.
Synagogue leaders have been consulting with an epidemiologist who, this past Monday, indicated the current precautions are enough for the time being, Bloom said.
He indicated synagogue leaders are aware circumstances could change.
“In Judaism the most sacred thing is life,” he said. “They say the saving of a life, or the preserving of life, is the ultimate value, and that is the ultimate value for us. And that comes before in-person, online or anything else.”
Two local mosques, the Islamic Association of Tarrant County and the Islamic Association of Fort Worth, appear to be continuing with in-person services and classes, according to their websites and Facebook pages.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
