THE CASE FOR OPENING CHURCHES 2

Last week my focus was on the spiritual connotations of the pandemic, particularly the evil spirit behind COVID-19, which has come to steal, kill and destroy.

The church of Jesus Christ is uniquely empowered by God to fight any and all evil that is perpetuated by the enemy. When churches are continually restricted to fully operate, this spiritual fight is compromised. Yes, we can still gather in smaller groups but the impact and effect of togetherness is lost. Easing the restrictions will mobilize the church to gather itself in one accord and fight. Today I wish to highlight a few thoughts about the physical and social implications of easing restrictions on the operation of the church. Some have argued about the centrality of the church in the response to COVID-19, given that this is foremost a health issue. In fact, the argument is to the effect that churches are potential epicentres for the spread of the virus if they are allowed to fully operate without restrictions.

Attention

I wish to bring it to your attention that churches value the sanctity of life and over the past months, we have learnt a lot about how the virus spreads. Most churches have put in place measures to limit the spread of the virus during church meetings. Opening of churches, with these measures in place, will bolster the psychological fight against the pandemic as our frontline workers, who are exposed to strenuous conditions, will have a place of refuge. The emotional baggage that our healthcare workers and all frontline workers carry, can have a negative impact on our response to the pandemic - the church offers that upliftment and hope.

One of the key roles of the church is to refresh our foot soldiers; undoubtedly our frontline workers are carrying a heavy load in ensuring that every positive case of COVID-19 does not end in death. Most of these workers are churchgoers and since the closure of churches, many have been denied their source of inspiration and encouragement. I am aware that when we talk about lockdown, some say the church has always been locked down or we don’t need many people for fellowship because Jesus said; “Where two or three gather, together, in my name, there shall I be in their midst.”

Christian

Unlike communist countries, Eswatini is built on Christian foundations  - to quote the preamble of our Constitution; “We, the People of the Kingdom of Swaziland do hereby undertake in humble submission to Almighty God to start afresh under a new framework of constitutional dispensation.” It is discouraging to observe that today we have abandoned that posture towards God in our fight against COVID-19. Corporate meeting and worship are imperative because challenges that I struggle with alone tend to be eased when I am surrounded by like-minded people - this is true even for national challenges. I think of the dream of King Somhlolo, encouraging us to choose ‘umculu’ over ‘indibilishi’. I think of the inscription in our Emalangeni notes; ‘God is our source’. All these point us to what we are seemingly reluctant to prioritise - God and His church.

Another key role of the church sterns from the fact that no community is complete without the church, in as much as it is not complete without the political and education spheres. Religion plays a key function in the stability of any nation. We cannot enjoy true peace if there is turmoil in the religious sector. Over the past few months, we have witnessed different churches making donations towards the response to COVID-19. Complementing the efforts by government through NDMA, churches are distributing food hampers not only to their affected members but also to the community at large. I must say these initiatives are difficult to facilitate and maintain given the status quo of the restricted operations of the church. It is the responsibility of the church to respond to any humanitarian crisis, and this we can optimally do when the restrictions to operate are lifted.

Argued

Many have argued that the impact of the church is minimal, hence they see no need to prioritize the opening of this great institution, which is central to the well-being of many emaSwati. I wish to point out that the church is doing many good works which are rarely reflected in our mainstream media platforms. The church has contributed to education in many forums, paying school fees, buying school uniforms, supporting school food programmes, to mention a few. A couple of years ago the nation adopted a multi-sectoral approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, the church was left behind because it was deemed as primitive with its teachings of abstinence and faithfulness. Leaders of the pandemic, then, felt the church was irrelevant because we were not embracing condoms.

I believe there are lessons to draw from the initial fight against HIV, which was muddied with a lot of finger-pointing. It wasn’t until the combative effort from all sectors that meaningful strides were made, including what the church was preaching all along, the issue of abstinence and faithfulness. I believe even today, to adequately fight this pandemic, everybody must be involved. This is an emergency! Lives are at stake, therefore, no one or sector of society should be responsible for the entire nation. When the alarm is raised, everyone comes with a weapon he knows best.

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