#74
Reopening Churches: Risks Versus Benefits

As different countries around the world reopen following lockdowns, often progressively, a set of new issues emerge. Balancing safety, freedom of movement, and economic activity will not be easy given many uncertainties and competing goods, not least for religious bodies.
 
As Germany eased lockdowns, a case of infections linked to a church service has raised questions about holding services in person as well as related issues (evident in various countries) about what kinds of modifications of rituals are necessary or desirable.
 
More than 40 people were infected following a service held on May 10 at a Baptist church in Frankfurt. Church officials say they followed physical distancing rules and disinfected the building ahead of the service. However, the situation there, as elsewhere, is complicated by different regimes linked to local rules. In Germany, each of the 16 states determines its own lockdown exit plans. One repercussion is that the town of Hanau, east of Frankfurt, called off a prayer gathering that Muslim leaders had organized for Sunday, May 31.
 
More broadly in Germany, with a "flattened curve” of COVID-19 infections shops are now open, pupils are returning to class, and the Bundesliga has become the first major football league in Europe to resume after the pandemic.

(Based on: May 23, 2020 BBC article)