The pastor of an Orrington church announced Sunday that next week he will open the doors of Calvary Chapelto in-person worship in defiance of an order issued by Gov. Janet Mills to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Graves also said during a drive-in worship service in the church parking lot that the evangelical congregation would be the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit — expected to be filed by the end of the week — challenging the constitutionality of Mills’ executive order that has shuttered houses of worship throughout Maine and limited gatherings to 10 people.
Although Mills announced a four-stage reopening plan last week, it kept in place the ban on in-person worship services but allowed drive-in services in parking lots. Calvary Chapel, located on Route 15, has been doing that for three weeks using a radio transmitter that allows people to hear the service on FM radio while remaining in their cars as Graves speaks from a balcony 15 feet off the ground.
Next Sunday, worshippers will be able to choose from two in-person services and one parking lot service.
By defying the governor’s order, Graves and worshippers could be charged with a Class E crime with penalties of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. So far, just one person appearsto have been charged.
Neither the governor’s nor the attorney general’s office immediately returned a request for comment Sunday about how they might respond to in-person worship services.
Graves said in his sermon Sunday that by not gathering in person, his flock may have been following government guidelines but was not following God’s law.
“I believe that we have been commanded by Jesus to gather together,” he said. “The great commission will not be put on hold.”
The great commission was outlined in Matthew 28, in which Jesus told his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Graves told worshippers that in-person worship would follow guidelines set out by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Families would be allowed to sit together but they would be seated at a safe distance from other families and individuals.
“We can spread our congregation out,” he said. “We can do better here than what is being done at the big box stores because we love each other and care for each other.”
The lawsuit, similar to those filed in other states, would allege that the governor’s order shuttering houses of worship violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom to worship, Graves said. It would be funded by the Liberty Counsel, which has offices in central Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and sponsors litigation related to evangelical Christian values. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, has listed the organization as anti-LGBTQ hate group.
In other states, the Liberty Counsel has been successful at getting government officials to reverse decisions that said church services were non-essential. Cases similar to the one to be filed in Maine are pending in Kentucky and Kansas.
“The First Amendment is as applicable during a pandemic, or any other crisis, as it is every other day,” the Liberty Counsel said on its website. “There is no pause button on the Constitution.”
Calvary Chapel bought the former North Orrington School at 154 River Road for $200,000 in December 2001. Built in 1924, the building once housed the community’s kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils. The church opened its own school in 2002. It closed 11 years later due to lack of enrollment after the homeschool movement exploded in Maine.
The church is a branch of the original Calvary Chapel founded in Costa Mesa, California, by Chuck Smith, who went on to become a leader in the 1970s Jesus Movement.
Graves began preaching in the early 1990s. Rock music also figured heavily in the church’s appeal to young people.
“We got together and started playing heavy rock and preaching Jesus,” said Graves, who once wore long hair, a beard and a black leather jacket with a cross on it.
Before buying the Orrington property, Calvary Chapel met at John Bapst Memorial High School and the former Jewish Community Center building at the corner of French and Somerset streets in Bangor. That building was demolished a year ago to make way for a new $3.5 million gymnasium and fitness center on that site, which is near the main John Bapst school building on Broadway.
This story appears through a media sharing agreement with Bangor Daily News.
