BOISE — Churches are among the first few places that can open this Friday, given the Governor's rollout plan. However, not all parishes are opening back up just yet.
Senior Minister Steve Moore, says Ten Mile Christian Church won't gather yet, even after Governor Little's announcement.
"If you follow the CDC guidelines, it seems to me that the governor's opening of churches really practically precludes it," said Moore.
Moore says he'll continue to hold services online because his 600 seat worship center won't meet current CDC standards.
"Churches have to be ethical, I would hope that we're ethical, and if we say we're going to maintain social distancing, we're going to maintain social distancing," said Moore.
Ten Mile is a multi-generational church, and Moore says it would be hard to social distance in their youth programs.
"Let's say you're the teacher of the 3-year-olds or the second graders; how are you going to keep children to social distance and how are you going to stay away from each on of the children as you do that?" asked Moore.
Other parishes, however, are opening up for Sunday's service.
"St. John's Cathedral is going to be every other pew, and they have dots on the seats," said communications director for diocese Gene Fadness,
"a family unit is considered one dot, so an individual could sit as long as they sit on the next dot down."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise says ultimately it's up to the priests, although larger catholic churches, like Holy Apostles in Meridian, are staying online only.
The churches allowing public services are doing so with limitations.
"We won't do the passing of the peace where you shake hands, during Our Father, they won't be holding hands during that," said Fadness.
Parishioners can receive communion from a priest or deacon, but communal cup, or congregating after the service.
"That's one of the reasons opening up is going to be difficult because people ahem seen each other in such a long time, and we're family, and we want to touch and hug, but we won't be able to do that, obviously," said Fadness.
For the churches that do open, they strongly suggest parishioners wear masks. For churches that choose to stay closed, they're looking forward to opening when it's safe to worship together.
"Jesus didn't like going to the cross, either, and he went ahead and did, and he did what had to be done, and that's the posture we're trying to take in our church," said Moore.
St. Mark's Catholic Community announced Wednesday it would start in-person masses back up on Saturday, May 2.
