You may have seen a report on the news claiming that there is a COVID-19 outbreak at our church. There is no outbreak at Grace Church. We have three, part-time employees who tested positive and are now recovering at home, having never been hospitalized. As we enter the flu season, we encourage you to stay home if you are not feeling well or have COVID-19-like symptoms. We are going to meet for worship this Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s Table together.Although the media tried to incite panic over the "outbreak", it actually worked to underscore a growing public confidence that in fact the vast majority of "cases" are asymptomatic or mild and do not require hospitalization. Of those who are hospitalized, the great majority recover. The recent infections of President Trump and others in the White House simply bore this out. Grace Church held its services as usual on Sunday, and the story seems to have dropped off the radar.
The Southern California megachurches always struck me as a perfect lab experiment in how the disease is actually transmitted (or not). Thousands of people cycle through an indoor environment each week, without social distance, without masks, exchanging the peace (no doubt with hugs as well as handshakes), and even singing with choir and organ, and the best the media can find after four months of this is three mild cases.
It appears that civil authorities will remain stubbornly behind the curve on this for the foreseeable future. Based on an announcement at yesterday's mass, the arbitrary restriction on maximum mass attendance has been lifted by county health authorities, but they must still be held outdoors with masks and social distance, no singing, no handshakes or hugs. Just up the freeway, though, they've been doing these things for months, and it's been OK.
The celebrant expressed hope they might even let us inside soon. We'll probably get a clearer picture after the election. The megachurch members are almost certainly Trump voters, but many live, as we do, in Adam Schiff's congressional district.
I found a YouTube recording of Grace Community Church singing as a body the Charles Wesley hymn "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing", which as a literary artifact alone is brilliant and sublmine in the formal sense. How long will it be before our parish can sing this again?
