When California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that large sections of California would have to shut down businesses and churches because of a coronavirus resurgence, many religious leaders refused to comply with the order.
The Monday order, which allows churches to continue socially distant services outside, effectively sends some of the most densely populated counties back into a full-on lockdown for an indefinite period of time. Newsom in a Monday press conference said that he expects the virus to keep spreading unless the state remains locked down because "COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon until there is a vaccine or an effective therapy."
But even with the state's caution, some church leaders say that shutting down again is not an option. San Francisco and Western America Russian Orthodox Archbishop Kyrill, in an open letter to Newsom, said that the state's strictures on religious services, especially on singing, are "open discrimination," reminiscent of the "the era of godless persecutions in the U.S.S.R."
Kyrill noted that while the Orthodox Church had complied with the state's previous shutdown, forcing members to participate in Lent and Easter services online only, he was upset to see the state's permissiveness to protesters demanding racial justice.
