BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Alabama’s biggest church has set a plan in place for reopenings its doors to its thousands of members and regular visitors.

On Thursday, Church of the Highlands Pastor Chris Hodges took to social media to announce that the church and all of its campuses would start opening for Saturday prayer services June 6 with plans to open Sunday services June 21, which is also Father’s Day.

Up until the last few weeks, Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama health officials had advised churches not to open back up to the public due to the potential of spreading the coronavirus in large groups.

“I know there are churches that are meeting before that, but because of our size, we felt it was best to wait a little longer and even then, we’ll put into place a way for the rooms to not be so full so that we can have some distancing,” Hodges said.

Hodges said that the Saturday prayer services tend to be smaller and lend themselves to social distancing, but it also gives those of us who want to get back into church sooner a way to worship, pray and even receive in-person ministry.

For Sunday services, nursery and children’s ministries will continue to be closed until July.

Church of the Highlands was founded in Birmingham in 2001 and has over 50,000 people attend church across its 23 campuses.

Hodges said that while he would like to have the June dates set in stone, the church will adjust its schedule based on spread of the coronavirus.

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