COLUMBIA, S.C. — Brookland United Methodist Church in West Columbia is reopening their doors to the public on Sunday.
They’re making a lot of changes to ensure their congregation will be safe.
“We prayed about it and we just felt it was time to open our doors.” Joey Yandle has volunteered for Brookland Methodist Church for 33 years. He says the church is ready to hold in-person service.
“We have masks available, we have hand sanitizer, we’ll have the doors open so you don’t have to touch anything when you come in.”
But they won’t be gathering in their sanctuary.
Yandle says, “we’ll be having our services in the fellowship hall. It’s a larger space with not fixed seating so the seating can be moved, and we can practice social distancing.”
Main Street Methodist Church in downtown Columbia is also opening their doors on Sunday. Both will still offer live streaming of their services.
However, many other churches are staying closed for now.
Pastor Wes Church of First Baptist Columbia says, “the nice thing is that we can social distance and get several hundred people in our sanctuary at the same time. So, we expect in the next couple of weeks to be able to do that.”
First Baptist Columbia is taking a phased approach on reopening.
“Our book store and café are open, our family life center is open, and we have started what we call phase two, which is small prayer gatherings.”
They live stream services online and broadcast on WLTX every Sunday.
The pastor says, “it’s a church of six generations. So, how do we have children and the super seniors come together at one time? We just want to do that right.”