The Gereformeerde Gemeente Barneveld-Centrum will allow more than thirty visitors during the Sunday service on Sunday. This despite advice from the government to limit the number of visitors to thirty.
It is still unclear how many people will admit the church, but there would be room for a maximum of 250 people. According to a spokesman for the Barneveld church, this would be done in a safe manner, with a distance of 2 meters and the advice to wear a mouth mask.
The church does expect that far fewer than 250 people will come to the service. “Normally we have 2,000 seats, we now scale down substantially,” said a spokesman.
Last Sunday, the Gereformeerde Gemeente Barneveld-Centrum held three more services with 400 to 450 church visitors at a time. Then the church said this was no problem at all, because they have a large building with good ventilation.
The government cannot impose restrictions on church visitors
The government urges churches to reduce the number of attendees per service to thirty. However, this cannot be legally required, as it is contrary to the right to practice a religion or belief.
Following last Tuesday’s press conference, the federation of the Reformed Congregations did come up with the advice to limit the number of visitors. The link here only says that the number of churchgoers “must be further scaled down”. The government recommended thirty visitors are only mentioned if “this can lead to it”.
Correction: Earlier in this message was an advice from the denomination the Hersteld Hervormde Kerk (HHK). This has been adjusted, because the Barneveld church in question is not affiliated with this society. The text has been adapted to state the correct church context.
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