A number of vehicles, on a weekly basis, park in the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church lot in Dunkirk during the 8:30 a.m. Mass that is broadcast on WDOE. When the Rev. Daniel Walsh finishes the Lord’s Prayer, he then calls for the offering of peace with our neighbors. Walsh then notes the cars in the lot, asking those outside to honk their horns. This has been taking place since late March during the services. Submitted photo

“How can Christ turn people away from the church?” That’s a question currently being mulled by the Rev. Daniel Walsh, pastor at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Dunkirk.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday said churches, temples and mosques that are in Phase Two regions can reopen immediately at 25% capacity.

“Twenty-five percent occupancy is not as easy as 100% occupancy, but 100% occupancy is a mass gathering,” Cuomo said. “You really can’t do social distancing.”

While reopening might be great news for those unable to attend mass or other church functions due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the last three months, it will leave officials to ponder who to let in and who to turn away as a result of the updated guidelines.

Walsh said the Dunkirk church plans to begin offering daily Mass on Monday, June 15, with the first Sunday service set for Father’s Day, June 21.

“We’re going to have to turn people away,” Walsh said. “We had been getting 175 people for our daily mass.”

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church can hold up to 400 people, so under the new guidelines issued Saturday, 100 will be allowed inside when services resume.

Walsh has been providing services over the radio, with an estimated 60 to 70 cars showing up to the church parking lot. Members listen in their vehicles, an impressive amount to Walsh.

“I was shocked by all the cars out there,” he said.

Elsewhere, area church leaders have been keeping a watchful eye on congregations in Pennsylvania where restrictions have already been eased.

“We are paying very close attention to Pennsylvania, their churches, and seeing how that goes,” said the Rev. Adam Rohler, pastor at First Covenant Church in Jamestown, during an interview last week. “We’re debating a couple of things, because we still do online (services) and we’re still going to do drive-in service. We’re probably going to continue to just do that throughout the summer.”

The majority of congregations have switched to either digital broadcasts or drive-in services, or both, allowing parishioners to worship while maintaining public health guidelines. The response to that change has been generally positive, although there is always going to be something missing when people are not able to gather in person.

“At Park Church we are continuing to offer a live stream service on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.,” said The Rev. Joe Pascoe, pastor of Park United Methodist Church in Sinclairville. “Then we are offering a drive-in service on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., maintaining the standards of drive-in theater practice. The response was favorable. The reason that we didn’t go to drive-in service on Sunday morning was the response was so favorable, they didn’t want to lose the quality of the livestream that we are offering.”

In trying to plan for the future, pastors and church members are having to consider issues that never would have come up before COVID-19. Singing, bathrooms, child care services and many other factors all have to be considered in order to reopen safely.

“We’re not going to be offering child care services, the service is going to look a little different structure-wise,” Pascoe said. “We know that it is going to be a slow, gradual start regardless of how we do it, and we anticipate phases.”

Singing hymns is of particular concern, because of its importance in worship services and the airborne nature of COVID-19.

“How do we do congregational singing? Because signing is kind of essential for worship but it is also kind of a high-risk thing,” Rohler said. “Singing is one of those things that we want to do when we are together and church is one of the last places where you get to sing with a community of people in our culture. It is kind of important and we don’t know what to do with it.”

In addition to watching progress made in Pennsylvania, Rohler is also waiting to see how Jamestown Public Schools reopen child care programs.

“Obviously we are looking to see if there is a resurgence in cases, and if it is coming from churches. That is the scary part,” Rohler said. “We’re going to be following Jamestown Public Schools and their reopening guidelines, how they are going to do classrooms. That will help, hopefully, guide us in what we do with our children’s programming.”