"Turning Off Church Lights for Worship"... Protestant Church Holding In-Person Services Despite Surge in Confirmed Cases Detected

A church sanctuary with safety seat stickers for COVID-19 precautions. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Soyeon] A Protestant church in Gwangju was caught holding an in-person worship service in violation of COVID-19 quarantine guidelines.

According to health authorities on the 6th, a Protestant church located in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, held an in-person worship service around 8 p.m. the previous day with about 40 church members attending.

The authorities received a report that people were gathering in a church building with the lights off and conducted an on-site inspection. Most of the church members stopped the in-person worship and dispersed after being caught on site.

Some remained in the sanctuary based on the guideline that up to 20 people, including those filming the non-face-to-face online worship service, can participate in the on-site worship.

The health authorities plan to file charges against the church officials for violating the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act.

The church was also reported last December for holding an in-person worship service in violation of quarantine guidelines.

Gwangju City recently banned in-person worship services until the 10th of this month and only allowed non-face-to-face online worship services as COVID-19 cases surged mainly among Protestant groups, churches, and related unauthorized educational facilities.

As of 8 a.m. on this day, there were 296 confirmed COVID-19 cases related to Protestant churches, including 124 at Gwangju TCS International School in Gwangsan-gu, 47 at Ace TCS International School in Buk-gu, 110 at Antioch Church in Seo-gu, and 15 at Dream Church in Dong-gu.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.