B.C. churches this Christmas gathering at full capacity with vaccinated congregation

Christians who celebrate with mass might see churches at full capacity this weekend as long as they are vaccinated.

At the end of November, the province updated provincial health orders  to limit capacity in places of worship to 50 per cent, or to full capacity if everyone is vaccinated. Those orders weren’t changed when other restrictions went into effect this past week.

Dr. Brian Conway who heads the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre says the possibility of hosting services that include the unvaccinated is worrying.

“I think that the unvaccinated should choose to worship by the distance by zoom,” he suggests.

“[Christmas] is so important in the Christian faith right now, this is one of the two highest points of the Church year and everyone wants to recognize it. And I think that we should think of ways to honor that while reducing as much as possible the risk of COVID.

But Krista Greig with the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver does not share the same concern as Conway.

“I believe that by the Archdiocese following all the public health orders that we’re able to gather safely this Christmas,” she says, stressing that masks are required for all worshippers ages five and up.

However, Greig says churches themselves can adopt whichever approach they want.

“It’s ultimately to the discretion of each parish to determine how to best implement that for their congregation, of course, above all, avoiding having a divisive or segregated system,” she said.

“The Archbishop’s principal aim is to maintain the safety and unity of the faithful, and so the direction that we’re going is to encourage parishes to add more masses at 50 per cent capacity. But parishes do have the option of adding a ‘vaccinated-only’ mass for those who are immunocompromised or medically at risk.”

However Conway believes any indoor activity involving unvaccinated people is problematic.

“Mixing vaccinated and unvaccinated people indoors in any setting right now is really something that should only be taken on with great caution, if at all, and I would strongly recommend against it.”

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The infectious disease expert recommends churchgoers wear a mask through the service and bundle up so the church can keep windows open. He also has suggestions to carry on with the singing portion of the mass in a safe way.

“We live in the era of Omicron and having large numbers of people indoors all together for a significant period of time, especially if they are to sing — as is often done in the context of religious services — needs to be done with extreme caution, if at all,” he says. “An option that I would really, you know, suggest people consider is to just have one person at the front singing in this particular year, and that way, that part of the service would not be lost, everyone could benefit from it, and maybe reduce the risk of transmission of Omicron.”

Ezra Shanken with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver says they recently went through Hanukkah season checking everyone for proof of vaccination.

“It really is important to us that we create a safe urban environment as possible. And we want to be as compliant with provincial guidelines as we can be,” he says.

“We have been very lucky to have great COVID safety committees filled with doctors and health professionals who are really advising our synagogues and how they can be the safest they can be.”

He says as an added precaution, they’re no longer serving food, classes have been cancelled, and more online options are being made available.

On Christmas Eve, B.C. broke its daily COVID-19 case count record for the fourth day in a row as it recorded 2,441 infections.

Friday’s numbers compare to the 2,046 new cases reported on Thursday.

This is the second day in the row that B.C. has surpassed the worst-case scenario outlined in the province’s Omicron modelling projections earlier this month.

Modelling suggested that if the variant spreads quickly and there is “immune evasion with the same severity as Delta,” the province could see 2,000 new infections per day by Dec. 26.