San Jose church members protest California’s coronavirus singing ban with live concert

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Members of several California churches were fed up Sunday. It was time to sing.

Several hundred members of Victory Outreach Church and members of other churches gathered at San Jose’s City Hall plaza and sang out, protesting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban on indoor singing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With Victory Outreach’s house jazz band playing on the steps of City Hall, members stood 6 feet apart and wore masks as they clapped and sang, “in the name of Jesus, enemy defeated, we will shout it out,” The Mercury News reported.

“To say you can’t sing, that’s the time-out,” Victory Outreach pastor Joe Woolwine told the newspaper. “For us, it’s not singing, it’s worship.”

Victory Outreach, which has 400 members, had not gathered face-to-face in five months due to state restrictions that closed churches and then severely limited indoor attendance. Instead, the congregation has been worshipping remotely through FaceTime and Zoom, the News reported.

Sunday, they stood outside and were accompanied by a 10-member choir, the newspaper reported.

“You can feel the energy in the air,” Woolwine told the News.

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a claim by a Chula Vista church that the restrictions on religious gatherings were unconstitutional.

“When you see everyone else going to the grocery store and everything else being essential but to worship, it’s disheartening,” Vince Strangis told the News.

“To not have a service, what happens to them?” Woolwine told the newspaper. “We’re at the point where the risk of doing nothing is greater” than the risk of coronavirus.

Cox Media Group