MINNEAPOLIS — Roman Catholic and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations across Minnesota plan to resume worship services in defiance of the state’s ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, their leaders said Thursday, the strongest direct challenge to Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictions to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The leaders said at a news conference that the ongoing restrictions are an unconstitutional violation of their churches’ religious freedom, given that bars, restaurants, shopping malls and tattoo parlors are now being allowed to reopen. They said they shut down voluntarily in the early days of crisis but that executive orders now prevent them from holding normal in-person services.

“Being ordered to stay at home may have been necessary to protect the public health, but it came at immense costs,” including spiritual costs, said Archbishop Bernard Hebda, leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

The Minnesota Department of Health on Thursday reported a new one-day high of 32 deaths from COVID 19, raising Minnesota’s death toll to 809, with 539 newly confirmed cases for a total of 18,200. The number of people hospitalized with the disease reached a one-day high of 566, with 229 patients in intensive care, tying highs set Monday and Tuesday.

The denominations plan to resume worship services Tuesday next week, with their first Sunday services May 31 on Pentecost Sunday. Churches will be limited to 33% of their normal capacity, with seating in only every third row. Families will sit together but will be separated from other worshipers. Other hygiene protocols will also be in place.

“Now that the state has deemed the risk of spreading coronavirus low enough to open noncritical businesses, we believe that we can responsibly and safely allow our communities to open in accordance with accepted public health guidelines,” said the Rev. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri synod.

Woodford said they had reached out to Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, including in letters sent Thursday, but that the state officials had declined to engage with the church leaders “in any meaningful way.”

Many other churches across Minnesota and the country have switched to online worship.