A local church shares how they’re adjusting to the state’s COVID-19 worship guidelines

State guidelines for churches and places of worship no longer allow singing as a form of worship.

One local church is sharing with us how they’ve been adjusting to these new guidelines.

“I think it’s really important for those of us that want to come to church and want to worship that the opportunity is there,” John Sloan, who attends Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Palm Desert told News Channel 3 while walking into mass on Sunday morning.

Many churches remain closed and online, however, some have reopened with several limitations in place.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church is one of those churches that decided to reopen on June 13th.

“We’re doing the best we can. I think so far so good,” Monsignor Howard Lincoln of Sacred Heart told News Channel 3.

Sacred Heart is strictly following guidelines from the state even setting up a reservation system to attend mass.

“We can’t go to church because we’re not on a list,” Carmen Vasquez said.

Some parishioners aren’t liking these new guidelines.

“We are being denied entrance into church, not a casino, not a liquor store, our baptismal right to attend church,” Vasquez added.

However, Monsignor Lincoln said these are rules they must follow.

“Everyone is welcome at Sacred Heart but we are mandated by the county and the state to do 100 or less and normally in the middle of summer we’d have 5,000 people each weekend, we have to have reservations to limit that to 100 people,” he said.

By state guidelines, churches must also implement strict physical distancing measures and cancel all singing and chanting activities.

“This is our first week. Now we do not have a singer. We just have a pianist so there’s very little music and we’re doing a mass that would normally be 55 minutes in 35 minutes and that’s good, it helps the safety of the people as well so they’re not in a confined space for too long of a period of time,” Monsignor Lincoln said.

He believes it’s the church’s responsibility to help keep people safe.

“We’re God’s design agents to sustain life and protect all humans and God has chosen us to repair the world and to end the suffering and we’re looking forward so much to that day when we can open the church to everybody and welcome everyone,” he said.

As for when they'll be letting in more than 100 parishioners, Monsignor Lincoln said they will wait until the county and state give them approval and update the guidelines.

For more information on the state's church guidelines visit: https://files.covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf