fbpx
×

Log into your account

We have changed software providers for our subscription database. Old login credentials will no longer work. Please click the "Register" link below to create a new account. If you do not know your new account number you can contact [email protected]
Virus forces service cancellation
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Assistant Managing Editor
March 08, 2010
2 MIN READ TIME

Virus forces service cancellation

Virus forces service cancellation
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Assistant Managing Editor
March 08, 2010

With part of the ministerial

staff and about 40 church members sick, Pastor Bill Bowyer had to make a call.

Should the church hold

services or cancel and try to get everyone healthy?

The senior pastor of Wake

Cross Roads Baptist Church in Raleigh decided to cancel Wednesday evening

services Feb. 24.

“We had been getting reports

on Tuesday (Feb. 23) that people who had been at a Sunday School

leadership meeting (Feb. 21) were sick,” he said.

By Wednesday morning, Bowyer

said he had heard of up to 40 who were sick, most leaders for Sunday School and

Awana leaders for Wednesday night.

Three on the ministerial

staff were sick.

The church was going to have

to adjust Wednesday night programming because so many leaders were out.

Bowyer said they opted to

have a “much healthier experience on Sunday” (Feb. 28).

“I hate to cancel services,”

he said. “It’s unsettling to do that, but when you’re facing so much illness,”

there really isn’t a choice.

Extra effort was taken to

clean door handles and knobs especially near the area where the meeting took

place Feb. 21.

It was a first in his 32

years as a pastor.

Although it was not confirmed,

he believes the culprit to be the norovirus, a gastrointestinal virus that has

no known cure and is wreaking havoc throughout the state.

Recent outbreaks occurred on

cruise ships and among youth at a YMCA meeting in Raleigh.

Symptoms generally last a

couple of days but reports say that it can spread days and even weeks

afterwards.

The church had canceled

Sunday services Jan. 31 because of snow and ice, a move Bowyer did not make

lightly.

“You create a huge problem

with people getting in and out of cars,” he said. “When you cancel on Sunday

most of the time you never make up what you lose in offerings.”