COVID 19 impact on in-person church worship

The first in-person Sunday service in months at the Center for Spiritual Living in Reno looked much different than in the past.

It happened June 7, 2020. Those attending wore masks, practiced social distancing, and there were 40 congregants as opposed to 250.

“We had to make the decision we were going to close the doors,” says Liesa Leggett Garcia, the senior minister at the center of the decisions made in March 2020. “But just have everything online.”

Garcia says prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, her center provided services online.

Once the governor ordered all businesses and facilities shut down, she says they continued with online --it's just more people were accessing it.

She says the church has always been open, its center was just shut down for a time.

Enter through the front door you will be asked to wear a mask and use hand sanitizer. Signs caution social distancing. Reservations are taken from those who want to attend Sunday services in person.

“They are just being patient with what has to be,” says Garcia. “Because no one wants anybody in our community getting sick,” she says

Garcia says while some things are different here for now, the spirit, soul, body massage from the center has never faltered.

Will the center ever have 250 congregants in attendance for Sunday Service again?

Only time will tell.

But until that time, they can always access services online.