All posts tagged: churches in lockdown

Canadian pastor released from jail

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Tim Stephens pastors Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was just released this past weekend after spending two weeks in jail after Calgary police used a helicopter to track down where pastor Stephens was holding an outdoor church service. On June 5, 2021, the Alberta Health Services (AHS) seized the church’s property and posted messages on its doors banning indoor services when Stephens refused to comply with Alberta’s health orders limiting church services. As Stephens noted in his tweet, the same week AHS issued the ban, photos surfaced of several senior Alberta officials breaking the COVID restrictions. As a result of that action, Stephens decided to hold services outdoors, which resulted in him being arrested in front of his children on June 14, 2021 on behalf of the AHS. After hearing of the arrest US Senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, approached the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom asking it to put Canada on its watch list. “I am troubled that our Canadian neighbors are effectively being forced to gather in secret, undisclosed locations …

Court allows Calgary police ‘to do anything necessary’ to enforce church inspection

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I previously reported on how a Canadian Pastor, Artur Pawlowski, who grew up under communism in Poland, twice drove an Alberta health inspector from his Calgary church, The Fortress (Cave) of Adullam, when she demanded entrance for a COVID health inspection. According to the Daily Wire, Alberta’s health department has now received a court-ordered warrant allowing the police “to do anything necessary,” if Pastor Pawlowski obstructs the health department’s third attempt to enter the building.

Should North American churches transition to house churches in the fall?

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A recent article on CBN threw out an interesting idea that maybe churches should look at starting house churches if the recent COVID-19 lockdowns don’t end. The coronavirus has resulted in restrictions being put on church services severely limiting the number of people that can attend a service. Many believe it’s more political than health related because the restrictions on churches are more severe than businesses with very similar vulnerabilities. For example, are people attending a casino any less vulnerable to the Coronavirus, than those attending a church? Obviously not. So, why does a church have more severe restrictions than a casino? When the Coronavirus originally hit and services were prohibited, many churches turned to online services that people watched in the privacy of their homes. Initially it seemed popular, but according to Barna Research the number of people watching online services has been steadily dropping with 32% fewer people watching today, than during the early days of the pandemic. And recently, some large churches, such as Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, pastored by …