Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst, Michael McKenna, believes strict restrictions to churches are worth it if they help halt the spread of COVID-19.
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From 6pm on Saturday, the NSW Government introduced a wave of restrictions for the greater Sydney region (which also includes Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour) and regional areas, with all churches in the city's capital having to close until at least next Friday.
For churches outside the greater Sydney region, services can go ahead, however, there are tighter restrictions such as a return to the four square metre rule, no singing and face masks must be worn at all times.
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Bishop McKenna believes the rules are "fair enough".
"Hopefully it's only for a couple of weeks and if that's what we need to do to stop the spread of the virus, it's a sacrifice worth making," he said.
"The new rules came in on Saturday afternoon and I think all our churches adapted quite quickly. We're back to masks and smaller numbers, as well as no singing."
Bishop McKenna believes the pandemic has made people cautious when it comes to planning ahead, especially for the diocese which is ordaining two new deacons next Friday.
"So that'll be under restrictions and no one will be able to come from Sydney or interstate to it," he said.
"We did consider whether we would postpone it but things could be the same or even worse in the future. So we're just going to go ahead with it and praise God we can, that the restrictions in Sydney don't have to cover the whole state."
With reduce capacity, the Cathedral of St Michael and St John can only accommodate 125 parishioners now.
"I think last time we had the four square metre rule, a lot of the very small communities were okay because they've generally got reasonably sized churches," Bishop McKenna said.
"I think it really affected the big centres like Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange."
The latest COVID-19 restrictions are in place until at least Friday, July 9, however, it is subject to change.
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