Large indoor gatherings seem like a distant memory at this point. Public and private gatherings are still limited to 15 people indoors and 30 outdoors. The only exemption to this rule is specific places of businesses like restaurants, which are currently operating at 50% capacity, and as this report details, places of worship.

When the first details of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan were made public back in May, there was no mention of accommodations being made for places of worship. Only after prompting from and consultation with various faith leaders, did the Provincial Government include guidelines for in-person services. As the regulations currently stand, seating capacity for places of worship stands at 30% or 150 people, whichever is less.

Ever since the guidelines were released in July, places of worship have been returning to in-person gatherings at a staggered pace. The Church of God here in Moose Jaw was quick to start again. Ruth-Ellen Wallace is the church's administrative assistant. She explains some of the measures they've taken to ensure the seating limit.

"So right now, people can register on our website or on our app. Then we have seating capacity for 30% for our regular space, so that like 110 people that we can seat in our sanctuary and we're pretty close to getting full to that limit every Sunday. Most people wanted to wait and come back in the fall so we have a lot of people who have only started coming back in September here."

Some of that hesitancy to return also had to do with each congregation's demographic as Scott Elger, the pastor at Moose Jaw First Baptist explains.

"Our congregation is pretty senior. There was some concern about what the distancing would look like. You know, [the congregation] wanted to come, they desperately wanted that social contact but also wanted to stay safe. I think they've relaxed more as they've started to come in and seen that they can keep the distance and yet still worship collectively. They can greet friends now even if at a distance...The big concern especially among older members of not just the church but the community as well is that the isolation is really hard. The threat to mental health wellness is probably just as serious of a threat as the virus."

And he has a point. Faith communities offer a deep sense of belonging to their members and being cut off from that can have negative impacts on their wellbeing. At St. Aidan's Anglican Church on River St., the clergy have been working to bring more stability into the lives of their parishioners through small weekday services made up of six to eight people.

Father Dean Pinter is the incumbent priest at St. Aidan's.

"In terms of moving to in-person gatherings, we're using a policy of more often and smaller. So throughout the week, there are morning prayers and this Wednesday at noon will be our first Eucharist. We're probably not going to continue every one of those services if there isn't a need. Or we're finding ways of modifying things. It's a time of really just trying to find some new rhythms and until we can get our footing under us, it feels unsettling."

And while the majority of places of worship here in Moose Jaw have returned to some degree to in-person services, each congregation is unique and has different needs that their leaders are working hard to meet, all while maintaining safety. At the Moose Jaw Alliance Church, small groups are only starting to meet this week with full services scheduled for a later date.

Assistant pastor Paul Reimer.

"Our youth and young adults programs are starting this week in-person but our services are still online until Thanksgiving. The reason we did that is that we have a large children's program, like an extremely large one, and we wanted kids to be in school for a little bit so that they would know how to wear their masks and everything."

Many of those spoken to expressed the joy of communal worship and the hope that such services will continue to be allowed as the pandemic progresses.