Episcopal Dioceses Ease COVID-19 Precautions as Churches Greet CDC’s Mask Update with Caution, Cheer

The partially obscured faces of parishioners in the pews greeted the Rev. Jamie Parsley as he celebrated Holy Eucharist on May 16. Their masks were a fact of pandemic life for the past year under the Diocese of North Dakota’s COVID-19 protocols, but Parsley sensed a change coming.

After the Sunday service at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Fargo, Parsley, the church’s rector, met with the vestry and discussed their plan to allow worshippers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend services without wearing masks. The change was based on the new guidelines issued the previous week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Similar discussions have taken place in the past week in congregations across The Episcopal Church in response to the CDC’s update and the subsiding threat of the pandemic. COVID-19 cases in the United States have dropped to their lowest level in nearly a year, and millions more Americans are receiving vaccination doses each day. The CDC still recommends unvaccinated Americans wear face masks in public, but vaccinated individuals don’t need to take that precaution. States, communities, businesses and churches followed up by lifting many of their remaining mask requirements.

At St. Stephen’s, the Wednesday night service on May 19 was the first time vaccinated worshippers were invited to leave their masks at home. “It was a unique situation, people coming in for the first time not wearing their masks,” Parsley told ENS. “It feels like we’re coming to the end of the pandemic.” Read More

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Right now we are seeing what may be described as a respite from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some articles and podcasts optimistically describe this respite as the beginning of the subsidence of the pandemic in the United States. Health experts, on the other hand, take a more cautious view, noting that there has been a drop-off in vaccinations, a number of states have low vaccination rates, the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus has made an appearance in the United States, and we can anticipate a resurgence of the virus in the nation's unvaccinated population in the fall. Two population segments that continue to be resistant to being vaccinated are white evangelicals and people who voted for former President Trump in the last presidential election. Trump himself is fully-vaccinated. Other population segments have not been vaccinated due the limited availability of the vaccines in their particular region. A third factor that may account for the drop-off in vaccinations is the CDC's relaxation of its guidelines for fully-vaccinated people and the subsequent relaxation of restrictions in many states, counties, and communities has reduced the incentive for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated. A fourth factor is the steady stream of anti-vax propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories on social media. It is premature at this point in time to conclude that we have rounded the corner on the pandemic.

Image Credit: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Fargo, North Dakota