FUMCFW Helps Fights Spread of COVID-19 in Fort Worth with Digital Worship

At First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, clergy and staff unite to assist public health officials in limiting the spread of the deadly and highly contagious coronavirus in our city

FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the midst of local planning efforts to protect individuals and groups from the exponential spread of COVID-19 experienced by other cities throughout the world, leaders at First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth have, with the encouragement of public health officials, decided to suspend its Sunday morning worship services in favor of online worship through at least March 25.

“We did not make this decision lightly,” says Dr. Tim Bruster, Senior Pastor. “In fact,” he adds, “this is a particularly hard call to make because we are a church—and it feels wrong for our church not to meet in the middle of a crisis. But, after learning all that we have about this virus in the last 24 hours, it just makes sense, both for the protection of our congregation’s most vulnerable members and our responsibility to our local community.”

Because knowledge and information is changing so rapidly, everyone, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US Department of Health and Human Services, and even the World Health Organization, is learning as we go about this virus and its potential for exponential spread in our local community. As more information becomes available throughout every day about this virus and our best and most effective response to it, Fort Worth Public Health officials are now urging the suspension of all group gatherings to help slow the spread of this highly contagious viral infection.

Estimated by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to be 10 times deadlier than the flu, and especially dangerous for people over 80 and for anyone with underlying health issues, COVID-19 calls for courage and social conscience to make difficult decisions in response to the lessons already learned from other communities devastated by this virus around the world.

Learning this morning that individual response such as hand washing, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting surfaces is not enough to stem the rampant spread of COVID-19, FUMCFW’s decision to enact the measure of “social distancing” is heralded by public health officials as providing much needed leadership and an example for our community in the only measure discovered so far to slow down the exponential spread of this virus. “Our role — and our opportunity as people of faith — is to help our community contain this virus,” Dr. Bruster says, “and by so doing, we can help protect our congregation, our neighbors, and our city from crisis.”

To access FUMCFW’s online worship services each Sunday morning, go to fumcfw.org/live, and choose between Sanctuary worship, The Gathering contemporary worship, or eleven:eleven non-traditional worship. In addition, you can view all of these previous services at fumcfw.org/media/#archives.