SAN FRANCISCO – The California governor’s office, Gavin Newsom, said on Saturday that it will issue revised guidelines for indoor religious services after the Supreme Court lifted the state’s indoor ban on indoor worship during the coronavirus pandemic, but maintained singing and intonation restrictions.
In the most significant legal victory against California’s Covid-19 health orders, the high court issued rulings on Friday in two cases where churches argued that the restrictions violated their religious freedom. Judges said that, for now, California cannot continue to ban closed religious services, but it can limit the frequency to 25 percent of a building’s capacity and restrict singing and singing inside.
California imposed the restrictions because the virus is more easily transmitted inside the home, and singing releases small drops that can transmit the disease.
Newsom’s office said these measures were imposed to protect the faithful from being infected.
“We will continue to apply the restrictions that the Supreme Court left in force and, after reviewing the decision, we will issue revised guidelines for religious services to continue to protect the lives of Californians,” said the governor’s press secretary, Daniel Lopez, in a statement. declaration.
Prior to the decision, indoor worship services were banned in counties with purple levels – those considered to be at high risk of coronavirus transmission. This layer is responsible for the vast majority of the state.
Judges were acting on emergency requests to lift restrictions at the South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista and Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry, based in Pasadena, which has more than 160 churches across the state.
“You can go to your house of worship, from now on! You can go back to the church, we are excited about that, ”Pastor Art Hodges, of the South Bay United Pentecostal Church, told NBC SanDiego.
The church has defied state orders since last May, holding the service indoors while following COVID-19 security protocols, Hodges said. He said he was grateful to hold services on Sunday “without any pressure, threat or concern” and added that the 25 percent attendance cap will cause him to add two or three more services to accommodate church members.
“This at least allows us some leeway to operate,” he said.
On Instagram, the Harvest Rock ministry in downtown Los Angeles announced it would hold a face-to-face service on Saturday night.
“Bring the little ones! We would love to see the whole family for the service tonight! ”Said the ad, followed by the hashtag #inpersonservice.
The church said in a statement that it will continue to petition for the right to sing during closed services, arguing that the state was unfairly allowing the entertainment industry to film a singing competition, but not during indoor worship.
“While it is one thing to block on the basis of data, it is an entirely different reason to allow some groups a right that is denied to others.” said the statement.
The court’s newest judge, Amy Coney Barrett, said in her first signed opinion that it was up to the churches to demonstrate that they were entitled to an exemption from the singing ban. Writing for herself and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, she said it was not clear at this point whether the singing ban was being applied “across the board”.
Not all places of worship plan to reopen immediately.
The head of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco said the Supreme Court “was not doing anyone a favor” by lifting the ban.
“We are trying to follow science and trying to be patient,” Dean Malcolm Clemens Young told The San Francisco Chronicle.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest of its kind in the United States with more than 5 million Catholics, cautiously advised “parishes that choose to return” to indoor worship to follow the rules of singing and capacity of the room, in addition to requiring physical distance and masks.
“The archdiocese of Los Angeles is pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision to allow religious services in closed environments,” the agency said in a statement.