Catholic, Anglican and many other churches are suspending traditional services to comply with a Government ban on gatherings of more than 100 people.
The Archbishops and Bishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia have called for churches to suspend all in-person public services of worship after Sunday services tomorrow.
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops met yesterday to discuss further responses to the coronavirus pandemic, and decided to suspend all celebrations of Mass until further notice.
Baptisms, weddings and other public liturgical gatherings already planned could proceed, but only with very small numbers of close family and friends present, and following the social-distancing guidelines.
Similar services not already scheduled must be postponed, the bishops decided.
Presbyterian churches will make their own decisions, but complying with all the legal requirements.
Church representatives said yesterday that although they would be suspending usual services in the continuing fight against coronavirus, special efforts would be made to maintain contact with vulnerable parishioners, including people undergoing self-isolation, to restrict the virus spread.
Church workers would make phone calls, and volunteers would help deliver groceries for some people in self-isolation.
Churches will also be mobilising social media, through livestreaming of services, without a congregation, on Facebook, and through podcasts and other methods of maintaining social solidarity despite the realities of physical distance.
The Rev Ed Masters, of the First Church of Otago, said the Presbyterian church had suspended its usual services until it was safe to resume them.
The church would be providing podcasts through its internet site, and ‘‘we’ll be looking for new ways to encourage and support people and continue our work’’ in the church.
‘‘It’s unfamiliar terrain for us. It’s something new, but we’ll get through it and we’ll be OK,’’ Mr Masters said.
The new dean of Dunedin’s St Paul’s Cathedral, the Very Rev Dr Tony Curtis, said the church would be using social media, including Facebook and YouTube, to include people in worship.
Some church staff would also be redeployed to ‘‘make sure our more vulnerable people are OK’’, he said.
The Rev Canon Michael Wallace, of All Saints Church in north Dunedin, said the reality was ‘‘physical distance and social solidarity’’.
The church had to be ‘‘super careful’’ to support any people, including the elderly, who were feeling anxious and isolated, he said.
