By Desire Tshuma.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Zimbabwe has been in lockdown due to Covid-19 since March 2020 and this meant that all religious gatherings had to be suspended during the period of the lockdown.
Following the review of indefinite level 2 lockdown conditions by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on 11 June 2020 , he announced that places of worship could now be open with no more than fifty participants and adherence to the social distancing and hygienic measures.
The Zimbabwe Heads Of Christian Denominations which represents the majority of Christian Churches in Zimbabwe has designed guidelines to assist member churches to resume worship life and Christian fellowships in ways that minimize chances of infections. “The guidelines are informed by the resources drawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the best practices from other worship communities in those countries where worship has since been resumed following lockdown due to Covid -19 ” said General Secretary for Zimbabwe Council of Churches Dr Rev Mtata.
“The necessity of Christian gatherings has main injunctions in the bible , clearly in the book of Hebrews which says ”Do not stop meeting together with other believers which some people have gotten into the habit of doing instead encourage each other especially as you see the day drawing near ” elaborated Rev Mtata.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches laid down several guidelines meant to facilitate safe christian gatherings which stipulates that a service where possible , shall be celebrated on the open spaces that allow physical distancing of one and half metres to two metres between persons sitting or standing.This means the maximum number in a worship would be determined by the size of the church and the sitting places shall be demarcated so that households are not seperated from each other.
Depending on the size of the congregation there may be need for several services since each service have a maximum of fifty worshipers. In other case each church will need to design a church register putting members into groups of fifty members , worship will have to take in turns of these groups of fifty.Children services should be combined with adults so that parents can take care of their children to avoid complications in contact tracing.
Worship will be conducted under strict hygienic requirements , the church should provide disinfectants , sanitizing and running water with dish washer.Entering and leaving the church should be organized in an orderly so that possible chains of infection can be traced.
Liturgical touching such as greeting , peace greetings is to be avoided , each one should their hymmals ,bibles or where possible everything should be beamed from the overhead projectors. Worshippers should wear masks covering mouth and nose throughout the service.
Organisational measures should be taken to ensure that there is no crowding at the entrance or exit ,singing together carries particularly high risk of infection so it should be avoided for the time being as should be the use of wild instruments and if instruments are used by different persons , proper sanitizing regulations should be followed.
The celebration of the Lord’s supper requires special hygienic care and should be therefore be handled with care if not postponed.For the funerals services, the same hygienic requirements apply in churches as for services on Sundays and holidays .Funerals at the grave should be arranged in accordance with the Ministry of Health and Child Care rules.
Baptism should be celebrated out the main service and weddings , same hygienic safety regulations apply.Confirmations ,ordinations and other forms of celebrations that involves intensive encounters should be delayed for the time being in order to gain experience with the worship service formats described. “Finally we encourage congregations to further develop the current used ways of media participation in worship services like streaming especially for the elderly and those with pre existing conditions ” concluded Rev Mutata.
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