Two Chicago church leaders vowed to continue holding religious services despite social distancing requirements, and criticized Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for not consulting them about shutting down houses of worship.
Lightfoot, meanwhile, criticized one of the churches for reopening its doors over the weekend but said she would continue education efforts about the importance of stay-at-home orders to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The dispute kicked off after Metro Praise International Church on the Northwest Side opened its doors for in-person services in an act church officials described as “passive resistance” to Pritzker’s ongoing stay-at-home order.
That defiance led Lightfoot to tweet Monday morning, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. When you gather like this, you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger.”
Another church, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, hosted Sunday services in Albany Park despite the stay-at-home order.
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At a Monday afternoon news conference, Lightfoot said she spoke with the pastor of Elim Romanian and had a “very pleasant” talk with him. She said she hoped to do more outreach but expressed reluctance to take harsher action.
“We’re not going to send in the police to arrest parishioners,” Lightfoot said.
Churches pose a thorny enforcement problem due to potential First Amendment questions and a political one, too, as no elected official wants to cross local ministers.
Lightfoot and Pritzker unveiled plans last week for reopening the city and state, though each official made clear normalcy is a long way away. Still, they are facing pushback from restive citizens, local business owners and other elected officials as warm weather arrives and various stay-at-home restrictions carry into their third month.
In interviews with the Tribune, church leaders pushed back.
Cristian Ionescu, the pastor at Elim Romanian, called his church’s first in-person service in two months an “extraordinary success” and said the church took extreme measures to ensure all participants were safe.
There were only 110 people at each service, occupying only 15% of the seating capacity.
The church checked the temperature of parishioners before they were allowed inside the church, he said. People were given gloves and masks, and there were sanitizer dispensers stationed inside the church.
The church also created some guidelines before allowing people to attend church. People were barred from attending service if they were older than 60 or younger than 10, had underlying medical conditions, or had recently used public transportation, Ionescu said.
“We created the ultimate filter,” Ionescu said. “We said if anybody is not 100% confident in attending service, they better stay home.”
Ionescu said it was offensive that politicians didn’t consult with religious leaders when developing a statewide and citywide plan for reopening.
“They should cooperate with us, not dictate to us,” he said. “I take offense that they think they care more about our people than us.”
Joe Wyrostek, pastor of Metro Praise International Church, shared Ionescu’s frustration.
“I just feel like we were put at the back of the bus,” he said, referring to religious leaders. “We were not in any of the discussions.”
Wyrostek said he decided to resume church services after seeing Pritzker’s “cautious” reopening plan, which wouldn’t allow for gatherings of more than 50 people until the fifth and final phase.
“We have to stand up for ourselves at some point,” Wyrostek said. “We’ve lost trust in what they’re doing. We have to peacefully resist and see where it goes.”
Wyrostek said there was plenty of space during the church services, and only people who wanted to wear masks were obligated to do so.
“The first place people should be able to take off their masks should be a place of faith,” he said.
Asked Monday about his message to churches holding large services in defiance of his stay-at-home order Pritzker said: “You’re likely not only breaking the law. … But also, you’re potentially putting hundreds of people in danger.
“And that’s something that I think people should be thinking about, the parishioners and the faith leaders who are conducting those services, that it’s not just about yourself, it’s about all the many people who attend. And even more importantly, the many people who will … come in contact with the people who attended those services.”
Because all faiths place an importance on caring for others, Pritzker said he hopes religious leaders will “take into account that caring for your fellow human beings means keeping them safe.”
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, told the Tribune she understands people’s desire to return to their houses of worship but said they should remain home due to the public health crisis.
“We need to care about our neighbors,” she said. “Staying at home is an act of very Christian love.”
