Batavia Covenant Church plans to open its doors Aug. 16

BATAVIA – Batavia Covenant Church lead pastor Eric Landin misses seeing the members of his church on Sunday mornings.

In mid-March, the church made the decision to cease in-person worship services because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think we're all feeling just the lack and absence of that personal interaction," he said. "It's just a challenging time."

Plans are for the congregation to regather for Sunday services starting on Aug. 16. Up to 50 congregants will be allowed in the sanctuary, with approximately 20 congregants being staff, ushers and service support.

"We are looking forward to just seeing each other again," Landin said. "Of course, with all the restrictions we have in place – no physical contact, maintaining social distancing, masks and so on, it's going to look a lot different than Sunday mornings usually do with handshakes and hugs and leaning in to share stories with each other and all that."

Initially, 30 congregants will be able to register to attend Sunday gatherings. Prior to the Aug. 16 worship service, the church will hold an outdoor worship service at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Several restrictions will be in place as part of the outdoor worship service, including that people will have to stay a minimum of 10 feet away from each other and everyone will have to bring their own chairs. Those attending will have to wear a mask when they leave their seats.

"We will be singing a couple of songs in that setting, but we're going to require masks while we're singing," Landin said. "Inside, we won't be doing any congregational singing for the foreseeable future. Sunday evening is an attempt to help reach and connect with some of the people who aren't ready to gather inside, but are more comfortable with an outdoor gathering."

The statewide guidelines in phase four of Gov. JB Pritzker's Restore Illinois plan recommend gatherings of no more than 50 people. When the 50-person limit cannot be followed in places of worship, the Illinois Department of Public Health has recommended that churches consider limiting attendance to 25 percent of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower.

Batavia Covenant Church's sanctuary has a maximum capacity of 417 people. Several safety precautions will be put in place, including that face coverings will be required and attendees will have their temperatures checked before they can walk in the building.

As Landin noted, the services will not feature any congregational singing. In addition, communion will be prepackaged and church bulletins will not be passed out.

"We're trying to give a touchless experience," Landin said.

The Illinois Department of Public Health advises churches "strongly consider discontinuing singing (and post signage discouraging singing), group recitation, and other practices and performances where there is increased likelihood for transmission from contaminated exhaled droplets."

"We've been putting these plans in place for the last several months," Landin said. "And really in June we started in earnest nailing down some details with our leadership team. We've been just walking one step at a time and building consensus along the way."

He believes the plan the church is putting together errs on the side of caution.

"As circumstances change, we may be able to open that up a little bit more," Landin said. "There were two things that we were trying to keep in mind. One, what do we need to do to keep people safe? But then, the other question that's probably just as important is how do we make sure people feel safe? Their perceptions are important too."

A survey conducted by the church showed that 43% of the respondents said they would be willing to physically regather if proper precautions were put in place. He said the church's regathering plan is based on the latest health metrics.

He noted that the number of COVID-19 cases across the state continues to rise.

"Right now, we're still planning on regathering on Aug. 16, but that could change," he said. "We want to abide by the governor's requirements at every step. If it's deemed unsafe in our area, we'll dial that back."

Batavia Covenant Church plans to continue to livestream its worship services.

"Even when the pandemic is done, we have people with compromised immune systems or can't come to church for one reason or another," Landin said. "And making that available is just really important. Some of our more elderly members who can't come to church, I think they feel more connected to our church than they have in a while. So much is available and accessible to them."

And as Landin noted, the church is more than just a building.

"The body of Christ is the church," he said. "The church is not a building or a facility or even a Sunday morning worship service. We are the body of Christ."