Heading into Easter weekend, local and state officials, along with numerous religious leaders, urged churches and their members to avoid any gatherings that could further spread the deadly coronavirus in Kentucky.
That includes church services inside sanctuaries and big family gatherings with egg hunts.
“We’re in this together. Be mindful. We need to take care of each other,” Christian County Health Department spokeswoman Amanda Sweeney said Friday in a teleconference with local news media.
Gov. Andy Beshear was more direct. Anyone who attends an Easter service inside a church will receive an order from their county health department to quarantine at home for 14 days, he said.
“This is the only way we can ensure your decision doesn’t kill somebody else,” Beshear said Friday afternoon during briefing, which is seen daily by more than 250,000 people who watch a live stream on Facebook. Others, across Kentucky and elsewhere, listen or watch on television stations, radio and websites.
Beshear is sending state troopers to churches that hold services this weekend. The officers will take down the license plate number of every vehicle parked at a church and then provide the local health department with information about the vehicle owners.
The leaders of fewer than 10 churches have said they plan to ignore the governor’s order that prohibits gatherings during the pandemic. Beshear said he believes three or four of the churches will go through with those plans.
One of Kentucky’s deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, has been linked to a church revival in Hopkins County. Health officials believe the revival was directly connected to 54 positive cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.
A few churches in Christian County have announced plans for an Easter drive-in church service, which is allowed under the state’s restrictions so long as congregants remain in their vehicles parked at least 6 feet apart. Each car should be limited to members of a household. They may not pass anything, such as a collection plate or church programs, from car to car.
The Rev. Janet Carden led a drive-in service at St. John United Methodist Church last weekend for Palm Sunday.
“We’ve been getting cards in the mail thanking us for the service,” Carden said Thursday.
St. John will have another drive-in service for Easter, along with Second Baptist Church and Concord Baptist Church.
Brad Fancher, pastor of Restoration House in Hopkinsville, joined the local teleconference Friday to talk about his church’s transition to virtual worship. Restoration House decided to stop in-person worship in mid-March because of the coronavirus.
“We felt like it was the best way to communicate love” to the church and the community, Fancher said.
“It’s not something necessarily we would have chosen, but we are seeing really, really great results,” he said. Before the church suspended its in-person services, it typically had about 200 Sunday viewers online. Now there are 1,500 viewers.
“I know that has been the experience of a lot of churches,” Fancher said.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
