Church-goers may have to rethink some of their plans as Wagga adjusts to new COVID-19 restrictions.
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The city's churches are deciding whether to reshuffle services or cancel them entirely following the Australian government's ban on all non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people, announced on Wednesday morning.
Wagga's Baptist Church has called off all five of its services this weekend, and will continue on a "week-by-week" basis until further health advice is released or the restrictions are lifted.
The church usually sees upwards of 350 worshippers come through its doors each weekend, with the Sunday mid-morning service pulling a crowd of almost 200 people.
Senior pastor David Strong said while prayer and Bible study groups would continue throughout the week, his church had made the difficult decision to postpone all three English speaking worship services, as well as its services offered in Burmese and Chinese.
"If we discontinued one service that was greater than 100, there might be others who turn up to other services and turn it into more than 100. So we just think the easiest thing for us in terms of just organising and making decisions would be for all the worship services to cease," Pastor Strong said.
"We would love to be back together as soon as we can, but we've got two big considerations. We've got the elderly who are part of our congregation ... and we want to care for them the best we can ... the other consideration is the city as the whole, church services in the city are one of the bigger meetings."
Pastor Strong, who has been in his role about 10 years and also runs a farm outside Wagga, said "it was pretty obvious" his church should postpone services.
"My desire anyway is even though we're not able to meet physically together that we would still know a deep communion with God, a connection with God," he said.
"My first priority is the two-legged sheep, not the woolly sheep."
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At Wagga's St Michael's Cathedral, the 100 person limit will have an "immediate effect" on how the church operates.
Father Reece Beltrame said St Michael's, which has up to 300 people attend a regular Sunday mass, would double its liturgies to six throughout the day in order to break up the number of visitors.
"We'll try and cap it ... as the cathedral fills up and we get to around the 100 mark," Father Beltrame said.
"I think it's a very reasonable thing to do. To consider our neighbours and the whole society."
Father Beltrame said the Bishop had freed Catholics in Australia from their usual Sunday obligation.
"Which means we don't have to go to mass in this period of time. We want people who don't have great health or are over 75-years-old to really give it some good thought."
Father Beltrame said the church was considering delivering masses via video-link.
"There is that option there. I hope to do something on YouTube. We're responding to the needs as best we can."
Some of Wagga's smaller church services, such as Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Turvey Park will run as normal.
Lutheran Pastor Stuart Kleinig said his services would continue, as they were normally attended by less than 100 people.
Saint John's Anglican Church has temporarily suspended all its services, which are usually attended by 80 to 100 people.
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