One United Methodist Church leader overseeing some 700 congregations and campus ministries across the state says worship will remain at home.
That’s as a stay-at-home order issued by Governor Ron DeSantis excludes places of worship as “essential.”
The conundrum comes as Christians prepare for Holy Week next week ahead of Easter, the holiest day on the Christian calendar when Jesus was resurrected.
Bishop Ken Carter of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church says leaders feel worship must remain at home in a state with a large and aging population.
“We tend to have government policies that have a very low social safety net and give very minimal direction to people, and so the church has felt like we need to exceed what the government was asking of our people.”
Instead many congregations are gathering on the internet to worship, using programs like Facebook and Zoom.
