Coronavirus outbreak closes church in Universal City that once again allowed hugging

Pastor Ron Arbaugh of Calvary Chapel said he followed “the letter of the law” when he reopened his church in Universal City in May.

Now, more than 50 staff and parishioners in his evangelical congregation have tested positive for COVID-19, an eruption the pastor blames on his loosening of a rule against hugging last month.

“If I could go back and do something different, I would have kept the prohibition on hugging inside the church,” he said. “That’s my responsibility. I’m the one who gave permission.”

The coronavirus outbreak at Calvary Chapel serves as a cautionary tale to those who would gather too closely in the time of the virus — be it to praise God, toss back tequila shots or visit with relatives.

The state’s recent reopening — now partially reversed by Gov. Greg Abbott — had prompted some to let down their guard, in the false belief the the virus has disappeared. In fact, it was lurking and waiting for people to come together, on a mission to colonize nostrils and mucous membranes.

Arbaugh oversees a congregation of some 1,200 adults in a 10,000-square-foot meeting hall in a shopping center. He reopened the church right after Abbott gave the green light for such gatherings May 1.

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At first, Arbaugh said, the church was about 40 percent full, necessitated by the governor’s social distancing mandates. Everyone had to wear masks. Seating was every other row.

After several weeks, and the loosening of some restrictions, church attendance grew to about 80 percent, he said.

Their church has a tradition of a five-minute “meet and greet” during its three Sunday services, when parishioners turn to one another for sometimes full-on embraces.

“We kept doing the greeting, but we stopped the hugging altogether,” he said.

But in mid-June, after about six weeks of church members being back together, the no-hugging rule felt sort of “weird,” Arbaugh said. People kept asking him why they couldn’t hug.

“So I told people, ‘Look, I’m not your parent. Go ahead and hug, but make sure the person you’re hugging is OK with it,’” he said.

On June 24, a night Arbaugh was preparing to go to the church for Bible study, a text came in: Someone in the congregation had tested positive. Then four people tested positive. By the time he arrived, the number had grown to six.

Arbaugh immediately shut the church again and subjected it to a major cleaning.

So far, more than 50 people have tested positive, a mixture of staff and congregants, he said. That includes Arbaugh and his wife.

“I didn’t have any symptoms, except I lost my sense of smell and taste,” said Arbaugh, who has been in quarantine for two weeks and three days with his wife.

He said no church members he knows of have had to be hospitalized. Most have had body aches, headaches and such. He’s stayed in constant communication with his flock.

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The only member to be hospitalized was an elderly parishioner who hadn’t been at church for some time and tested positive while in the hospital for other health problems, he said.

A free medical clinic the church helps run also has been closed but will soon reopen.

Arbaugh plans to resume church in person Sunday, with only one live service, which will be streamed on the church’s webpage twice later that day.

Again, he will follow the letter of the law, in hopes a second outbreak can be avoided.

“Honestly, I don’t expect much but a trickle of people for the next several Sundays,” Arbaugh said.

Everyone will have to wear a mask, though churches are exempt from the state mandate, and sit apart from one another.

Hugging once again will be prohibited.