Huge Group of California Churches Announces Plan To Defy Governor Newsom's Order
An church network in California will ignore Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive prohibitions this month, opening sanctuary doors for communal worship despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
California Church United, representing roughly 3,000 churches and 2.5 million congregants statewide, announced Thursday that it will return to conducting in-person services by Pentecost on May 31 rather than await the third phase of planned societal reopening.
Newsom, the first governor to introduce a statewide executive stay-at-home order, finally pushed California into Phase 2 of its reopening effort on Friday, allowing retailers to recommence on-site sales under substantial health and capacity restrictions, KABC-TV reported.
Newsom did not, however, definitively indicate when the “Phase 3” reintroduction of public dining and in-person church services might come — and that left local church leaders unwilling to cooperate.
“Our churches are part of the answer, not part of the problem,” Water of Life Community Church senior pastor Danny Carroll said.
“We’re an essential part of this whole journey and we’ve been bypassed … kicked to the curb and deemed nonessential.”
The decision was reportedly not easy for church leadership, leaving several pastors torn between extending more personal care to their local congregations and submitting to the authorities, who they conceded are doing their best to protect the health of the community.
When the former eventually won out, however, rebelliousness and defiance were not a part of the equation. Instead, it was a Christian heart of service that informed the decision for Sandals Church pastor Matt Brown and Church United pastor Jim Domen.
“My church made 10,000 masks and gowns for doctors while practicing social distancing,” Brown told The Sun of San Bernardino County.
“We feed people and procure electronic devices for seniors who are isolated. Newsom has no problem with all of that.
But when we want to gather to worship, he has a problem.
“We have a pastor in the south, in Chula Vista feeding hungry people a mile long in cars, socially distancing,” Domen said, according to Fox. “How can the church not be essential?”
He is the Lord of the lords and
the King of the kings, and those who are with Him
are the called and chosen and faithful -
REVELATION 17:14
God Bless
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