“All Churches Are Not Equal”: A Member of a 1,000-Strong Church Says Big Sanctuaries Deserve Bigger Limits

• A letter writer challenged the flat 100-person limit on church gatherings
• She said larger churches with enough space should be assessed one by one
• Her church has more than 1,000 members and supports a home for the aged
• She described churches as employers, bill-payers and community institutions

When the government set a single 100-person limit on church gatherings under the Disaster Risk Management Act, Ann Marie Brown thought it ignored the obvious. In a letter to the Jamaica Observer, she argued that a small church and a very large one should not be treated the same way.

“All churches are not equal and what is good for the goose in some cases is not necessarily good for the gander,” she wrote. She suggested that “a special team” visit larger churches and approve higher numbers based on their physical space and their safety measures.

Brown described her own congregation to make her case. It has more than 1,000 members, many of them over 70. The church helps seniors pay for medication and bills, runs and supports a home for the aged in the community, and contributes to smaller churches in districts across the island. It also employs workers and pays its running costs. She called churches “fully functioning” institutions and “the heart of every community,” and warned against “narrow-mindedness” in the rules.

Her letter raised a point that church building committees know well: size matters. Floor area, ventilation, number of exits and seating capacity decide how many people a building can safely hold. A limit per building treats a small hall and a large auditorium the same, even though one may be ten times the size of the other.

The letter also showed how much a large church’s property carries. Salaries, utilities, a home for the aged and grants to smaller churches all depend on members being able to gather and give. For congregations planning to build or expand, it makes sense to keep an up-to-date record of certified capacity, fire exits and ventilation. That record can support a church when rules are written, when insurers ask questions, and when a lender or the tax authorities want to know what the property is worth and what it is used for.

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