Quarantining the Church?
Though religion is now considered to be “nonessential” in the age of coronavirus in parts of the country and world where only essential businesses (in the eyes of government officials) are allowed to stay open, this was far from the norm throughout history. Consider the year of our Lord 1665, when the bubonic plague swept through England. The Church of England published a special prayer, which beseeched God for aid, saying in part,
O Most gracious God, Father of Mercies, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, look down upon us, we beseech thee, in much pity, and compassion, and behold our great misery and trouble.
For there is wrath gone out against us, and the Plague is begun.…
O our God, forget not thou to be gracious: neither shut thou up thy loving kindness in Displeasure. For his sake, who himself took our Infirmities, and bare our Sicknesses, have mercy upon us, and say to the destroying Angel, It is enough.…
O let us live, and we will praise thy Name; and these thy Judgements shall teach us to look every Man into the plague of his own Heart: that being cleansed from all our sins, we may serve thee with pure hearts all our days, perfecting holiness in thy Fear, till we come at last, where there is no more Sickness, nor Death, through thy tender Mercies in him alone, who is our Life, and our Health, and our Salvation, Jesus Christ, our ever blessed Saviour, andRedeemer, Amen.
Also, on July 3, 1849, in the face of a cholera epidemic that ravaged the United States, President Zachary Taylor proclaimed a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, stating,
It is recommended to persons of all denominations to abstain as far as practical from secular occupations and to assemble in their respective places of public worship, to acknowledge the Infinite Goodness which has watched over our existence as a nation, and so long crowned us with manifold blessings, and to implore the Almighty in His own good time to stay the destroying hand which is now lifted against us.
Fast forward to 2020: To help suppress the spread of COVID-19, in state after state, community after community, officials have ordered churches either to close, to hold only drive-in services, to limit their attendance to a certain number of persons (commonly 10), or not to sing, pass out literature, or share the sacraments.
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