The Hajj and the Virus

Hajj 2020

After the worship service on March 15th in the congregation we attend the board met and prudently decided to suspend gathering for worship until Palm Sunday because of the possible transmission of the coronavirus. Little did that group know that months later their congregation along with thousands of others across the country from different faiths would still be employing alternatives to physical gatherings of song, prayer and pondering holy texts. While there has been a lot of creativity in the ways this has happened most of us would agree that they just can't replace what happens when we are together. We certainly experienced a deep sense of loss when we couldn't attend worship on Easter morning, the first time this had happened in our lifetimes.

from Al Jazeera

This is the last day of the great pilgrimage festival in Islam called the Hajj, one of the five pillars of the religion.  In a normal year 2.5 million Muslims would flock to Mecca in Saudi Arabia from around the world. The crowds are so great that it can be dangerous for attendees and through the years pilgrims have been trampled to death. 

This year, rather than cancel this essential religious event, the organizers have limited it to a couple of thousand pilgrims from within the country -- perhaps a tenth of one percent of the normal attendance. This is obviously a symbolic gesture in the midst of the pandemic. 

Who knows whether limiting attendance and observing careful sanitation, masking, and distancing protocols will be sufficient to curb an outbreak of COVID-19 in Mecca. There is still a considerable risk. We are aware that in places in the United States where Christian congregations have resumed worship, confident that they have put safeguards in place or figuring that God would magically protect them there have been outbreaks, sometimes deadly. One congregation recently held a healing conference only to have a high percentage of attendees come down with the virus. Faith is God does not replace common sense and good science. 

What do you think about the resumption of worship and events such as the Hajj? Are you inclined to go back to church in the Fall, or anytime in 2020? Would you be more willing if services were held outdoors, weather permitting? .