Non-Catholic Church services cancelled?

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Lenten_ashes said:
How are your church leaders handling this Coronavirus?
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My church has cancelled services worldwide. We’ve been authorized to have our sacrament in our individual homes. Every congregant is part of a ministering program - our priesthood holding brothers are paired up, sisters are paired up, and we are given families to minister to/check up on/befriend and help. Every family has 2 teams, two men and two women, assigned to us to help with any spiritual or temporal needs.

So this last week, my ministering brother and I took the sacrament to a wife and kids whose dad was traveling back from another state. My other family is doing ok.
 
I am at my sister’s house in Augusta, and there is a Methodist church not too far from me, and on the church sign, it says something like “Services temporarily canceled”.
 
ShemGoodfield said:
We ignore ‘dumb’ regulations from the Government that violate the Constitution and First Amendment thereof.

So we freely gather in freedom, and freely speak, and the Government can make no law ‘establishing’ or ‘prohibiting the free exercise’ thereof.

It goes like this:
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I like this imagery very much, though some of it seems inspired by Protestantism.

The depiction of the fiery furnace in Daniel, though, is a little strange. They didn’t have chain link fences with barbed wire in Old Testament times. The furnace looks a bit like a steel mill. I’m reminded of the “dark satanic mills” in Blake’s Jerusalem (“and did those feet/in ancient times…”), though these mills were textile factories, not steel mills.
 
My LCMS church has cancelled services for the next 2 weeks. The LCMS “hierarchy” doesn’t have the authority to tell individual parishes to cancel, but has suggested following government guidelines.

Praying for all during this time. While I feel bad for us, I’m reminded during this time of Christians around the world who have to worship in their homes under fear of persecution.
 
Me too. I guess Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches cancelling their services, is one way for Christian Unity. for a lot of people, the only Community they belong to is their church community, and I feel bad for them.
 
TNMan said:
While I feel bad for us, I’m reminded during this time of Christians around the world who have to worship in their homes under fear of persecution.
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At least we are free to explore alternative means, even though they do not replace taking part in a service and being able to receive communion.

Here we’re working on online Lectio Divina groups, online commentaries on Sunday Gospels, and a “spiritual care” hotline, among others.
 
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All public Church of England services cancelled - other churches also cancel worship World News
 
Southern Baptist Church, town of 12,000, county of 30,000. Membership of around 250 each Sunday, maybe more on some days. For now, our church is suspending all services, Sun am/pm, and Wend pm. We are live streaming our pastors sermons at the appropriate times he’s continuing to write them, and there are older, full church services available on our website. All other programs and Sunday Schools are cancelled.
Not fun, not ideal, but that’s the world we live in. It’s a ‘first world problem’ kind of, considering how other Christians in the world suffer for the faith. But it’s going to be ok. God’s got this. 🙂
 
Ryt said:
In Brooklyn in the hasidic community everything is going on as normal. In the more modern they are closed and studying on video chat
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Yes, there was an article I saw recently that said they Hasidic community is also being hit hard by the virus because of this. I’m watching Pope Francis’s daily Mass live stream. No way am I justifying endangering myself and others because I’m being hard headed. I’m praying at home. This is a pro-life issue. People need to take this extreme threat extremely seriously. My faith rests in knowing we will get through this, not that God will protect me and others if I go to Mass.
 
Lenten_ashes said:
How are your church leaders handling this Coronavirus? Talking about Protestants and Orthodox Christians.
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Looking at the churches near me, the Orthodox churches have suspended services. Well, at least one of the Orthodox church technically has masses, but they are limited to only the “core team”, e.g. priest and altar servers, and no more than 10 people can be in the church at once, so they may as well be considered cancelled.

As for the Protestant churches, some flat-out say they’ve suspended services, but others are harder to figure out, at least when looking online. They don’t say anything, but it’s hard to tell if that’s because they’re still holding it, or if they’re just not in the habit of updating their website or Facebook page. I’d have to either call them or just drive by them on Sunday to see what’s going on.
Catholics, if you are in a similar situation, are you still going to confession? I need to go but did not because I saw the letter from our Bishop and figured it would not be available. And even if it is, there may be a line of people and we put ourselves at risk in there. So it just feels awkward. I actually wonder if they wont start hearing confessions via Skype or something. Sounds ridiculous on the surface, but given the circumstances and potential of this virus, I don’t think it’s that far fetched.
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Whether they’re still hearing confessions probably depends on the church. One of the churches in my area on their site indicates they are still doing confessions at their usual times, but most of them are unclear as to whether confessions are being done. You might want to just try calling to check.
 
Thanks to all who have responded.

No matter what branch of Christianity you subscribe to, I think we all are going to come out of this appreciating our services much more. I watch Mass online from time to time. And I will likely watch some protestant sermons as well as they are long and can be uplifting, even if I don’t agree with all their doctrines. We all need more hope and optimism right now.
 
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Around here, the Protestant churches are posting online videos of sermons that members can watch at home or they are having “drive-in” church where members stay in their parked cars while they have church.
 
The bigger cities and churches where I live are having online services. In the smaller towns, some are still having service as if the virus is a “big city” issue. A few more cases in rural areas may get their attention and show them they are not immune, although I don’t wish the virus on anyone.
 
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