Catholic Church opens doors, others assess tight coronavirus rules

Up to 50 people are now allowed to attend churches under coronavirus rules which have strict social distancing rules, ban singing and require items and surfaces are constantly cleaned.

St Josephs in Orange re-opened to parishioners last Sunday while continuing to maintain an online service.

It had several public masses with overflow service in Kenna Hall for any people who missed out on the service due to the restrictions.

Parish priest Fr Greg Bellamy said all bar one of the services reached the maximum number of attendees and needed to use Kenna Hall.

He said the same schedule of services would continue this week.

A Saturday 5.30pm service will continue to be streamed online.

He said the church had been streaming various services online even before the pandemic and would continue to do so where required.

Orange Uniting Church's Reverend Andrew Cunningham said they would continue to hold online services, partly because the Anson Street church was undergoing renovations.

He said they were assessing the strict coronavirus rules and did not expect to resume services until July.

"The Uniting church is taking a slower approach to re-opening," he said.

Reverend Cunningham said the restrictions were tight with including the ban on singing.

"It has been shown to be quite a good way to spread the disease," he said.

He said the online services were proving popular and would be retained after people came back to public services.

Reverend Cunningham said the average Sunday attendance at the five Orange-region churches he looked after was about 120-130 people.

However, he said a YouTube video of one service had 200 views.

"It seems to be reaching a wider audience," he said.

Holy Trinity Anglican Church rector Mal Dunnett said they did not expect to resume public services until Sunday week.

With the church closed for safety repairs the congregation was meeting in the church hall.

He said with social distancing rules a maximum of 20 people would only be attend to prey there.

"We are applying to be open for the size of hall we've got," he said.

"We are hoping to be back soon."

He said the online service was proving so successful it would be expanded and retained after the pandemic had ended.

That included having live Facebook streaming and mid-week services.