- COVID-19 expands Definitions of Worship - April 24, 2020
By Corina McArthur
The word church suggests a place people gather and worship a form of God. In Fairbanks, Alaska, Coronavirus preventative measures have reminded many that church encompasses far more.
Members of Great Land Christian Church still meet on Sunday mornings at 10 and Wednesday evenings at 7. Instead of meeting in a building, they now congregate through Zoom teleconferencing. The church’s shift from face-to-face services to Zoom began on March 15, according to Nick Morrill, GLCC’s 34-year-old minister. “I think that there are drawbacks of course,’ he stated, “but also some neat things that can come up. The drawbacks are just personal contact. Still good discussion happens. The fellowship side occurs, but it is not the same.’
Other churches and faiths have broadened their definitions of praise and worship in response to Gov. Mike Dunleavey’s mandate against non-essential gatherings of 10 or more people as a preventative measure to contain the spread of the infections from the COVID-19 virus.
According to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church’s Jessica Ives, 37-year-old office administrator said, “There is only a couple of us in our office for the most part. We have Zoom meetings quite a bit. We do our services on Facebook Live, so that’s changed. We do have some community meetings that happen in the building. But we cannot allow anybody in the building. There are only two of us that are on staff that can be in the building. This whole thing is very interesting. We are trying to do our first funeral tomorrow (April 17th). We have to Zoom call the family in so the priest can pray with the family and so they can mourn.’
Journey Christian Church’s head pastor Derek Dickinson said, “We went from in-person services to Facebook and YouTube. When all this started it happened in phases. We did small groups, but the mandates had to get those ruled out. It is not a full service now. It is a piece of the service. My wife and I started the church. We didn’t own a building for a long time. We had a van. Then we rented the Regal Movie Theatre for a long time. We had about 25 small groups spread across the city. We’ve always been a kind of church that has been outside of that. The hardest thing is that churches are about connection. Thankfully this didn’t happen 20 years because we didn’t have things like Facebook, Zoom meetings or YouTube.’
Long-term effects of the COVID-19 mandates trouble GLCC’s minister Morrill. “There is a concern for the church globally and locally. I am concerned about anxieties. I am concerned about the financial losses. I am concerned about feeling the stress of all of it. It is a real crisis. As a church leader, I feel the reasonability to be there to support and to connect to help people through the difficulties that they face. The emotional, financial, and mental things that occur.’
Adjustments in the virus’s wake demonstrate time and time again that fellowship is what matters. “We don’t need to be in the same building to be with each other,” said GLCC member Malaika West, 24.” I am grateful. We can still serve our community on our own as well.’
Morrill applauds the expanded definition of worship. “I always thought that church was more than just a building.’
Sundog Times
Corina McArthur is a vibrant 22-year-old, happily married to the love of her life. She an her husband live in Fairbanks, where they attend church and enjoy volunteering in the community. When McArthur is not studying or working, you can find her reading a Harry Potter book, hanging out with friends, or trying something new. A goal of hers is to be a local news reporter.
