The Most
Reverend Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana said
the Ecumenical bodies of churches will not rush the government to lift the ban
on the closure of church gatherings.
He said the church leaders would
always reserve that prerogative to the government, and wait patiently for the
state’s directive as to when churches can be allowed to reconvene for communal
services.
“For the ecunenical bodies we agree with the
government that the sanctity of life is a priority and so if the numbers of
COVID-19 cases keep on rising and we have not plateaued or we do not see a
decline in the cases, then we will say that let us keep to the ban until we see
that the situation can be handled, Rev. Boafo said.
Rev. Boafo who is also the Presiding Bishop of
the Methodist Church, Ghana, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an
interview and said “We need to contain these things else, people might even
fear going to church and get exposed to the virus.”
He explained that the Christian leaders decided
to fully support government’s restrictions on social gatherings and the closure
of the churches because they sought the need for the country to do so to be
able to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“It is important to note that addressing
COVID-19 requires a whole -government- and a whole-of-society response and the
church being a major stakeholder is indispensable in the State’s overall
COVID-19 response”, Rev. Boafo said.
He said since the closure, the government from
time to time met with the ecumenical bodies, made up of the Christian Council
of Ghana, Ghana Catholic Bishops, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council,
Ghana National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches and other
faith based organisations to deliberate on the situation.
He disclosed that during their last meeting with
President Akufo-Addo, the churches were asked to suggest ways towards the reopening
of churches in Ghana whenever it become feasible to do so.
He said the guidelines, that had already been
presented to the President were to help to mitigate the potential spread of
COVID-19.
According to Rev. Boafo, since faith and science
go together, the church leaders and the ecumenical councils consulted their
health personnel in the Christian Health Association of Ghana, to advise them
on what to do and out of that consultation, a guideline was drafted and sent to
the President on May 7.
He mentioned that among the strategies proposed
were strict hygienic and hand washing protocols, properly spaced sitting
arrangements, wearing of facemasks to church, no handshakes, and no
waving of handkerchiefs at church.
There could also be measures to take the
temperatures of members before they entered church premises, while families
could be made to sit together at church observing social distancing.
It also advised that communion services, a
Christian sacrament of sharing of wine and bread, should be done in such
a way that reduce hand-to-hand transmission while offering individual cups for
the communion.
The giving of offerings and tithes could be done
via mobile money system or be put in a stationary bowls or baskets with wide
openings.
The guidelines also proposed that intensive
education of the members of the congregation to be done by selected trained
members of the church, while church services should be done in sessions to
reduce the number of people that congregated at a time for worship.
Rev. Boafo said “These are protocols that
will help our well-being and so we encourage everybody to embrace them”.
GNA
