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Churches stream service in effort to prevent potential coronavirus spread
The decision to stream their service was done in an effort to help reduce potential spread as they see about 600 people every Sunday.
AUSTIN, Texas - As concerns about the spread of COVID-19 rise, local churches are changing up the way they do service.
"We've asked everyone to stay home and worship with us online," said Chuck Treadwell the rector at St. David's Episcopal Church in downtown Austin. The church is now streaming its Sunday services. "So you go log into our website or our Facebook page and you click on the link and that will take you to the live feed," said Treadwell.
Treadwell said the threat of COVID- 19 has changed the way many places operate now. "I think all of us basically everyone in the country is figuring this out as we go," said Treadwell.
The decision to stream their service was done in an effort to help reduce potential spread as they see about 600 people every Sunday. "You can sit in your living room and you can sing along or you can listen to the music and read the words you'll see all the text of the liturgy as we go through,” said Treadwell.
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Even though they are asking people to stay at home, if you forgot and still end up going in person don't worry. "We're not going to block them at the door, we're not closing the church, we are just strongly encouraging people to stay home and worship with us online that seems to be in compliance with the CDC and our dioceses,” said Treadwell.
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Austin church makes changes to services concerning coronavirus
There have been over 80,000 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19, worldwide. One church in Downtown Austin is responding to this by taking extra steps during its congregations to protect its worshipers.
While changes are being done for service, Treadwell said their efforts to help the homeless will still go on. "The Trinity center has made adaptation for how they do their work so they can still provide food and still allow them to get their mail without filling the trinity center up with people," said Treadwell.
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While the church may be nearly empty on Sundays now, Treadwell feels their community is as close as ever. "It feels like we are all still together, we are the body of Christ and we still know one another and we know this is not permanent and we just need to adapt and take care of each other while this is going on," said Treadwell.
So far the Austin area has 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19.