OAKLAND, Maine — Kingdom Life Church in Oakland is sparking controversy after it held a large gathering over the weekend.
"We weren't able to fully contain how many people came," said Senior Pastor Jamie Dickson.
Dickson said he originally canceled a scheduled conference due to safety concerns. He said he decided to hold a worship night instead and said he attempted to limit the number of people.
"We tried to respond as well as we could to facilitate and give out masks. It was more than we planned," said Dickson.
When asked if there were more than 50 people inside, Dickson responded:
"In the locations, yeah sure."
Current state guidelines limit gatherings to 50 people indoors. Dickson said a guest speaker from California was also in attendance. It's unclear if the speaker quarantined or took a COVID-19 test.
"I'm a pastor. I'm not enforcing everyone on how they do all their civil liberties and how they respond to everything. We're just doing out best to do our guidelines and play our part," said Dickson.
The Oakland Police Department released the following statement:
"Regarding the event over the weekend at the Kingdom Life Church in Oakland the Oakland Police Department has been having conversations with State Officials in an effort to decide what actions should be taken. We have also met with Pastor Jamie Dickson from the Kingdom Life Church who has been cooperative and indicated that this event grew larger than what he had planned. Pastor Dickson expressed a desire to work with the Oakland Police Department in the future to keep his congregation and the community safe."
Dickson said he cares about people's safety and said he is not trying to make the right decisions on how to move forward.
"We feel pretty devastated with any negative attention that we accidentally brought. We love our community," said Dickson.
Dickson said out of an abundance of caution, he is not having any in-person services this week.