By LOVETH AZODO, Lagos
Anglican Priests have urged the federal government to come up with more measures to control the spread of coronavirus which has spread to about 30 people in the country.
Notwithstanding its tradition of celebrating Mother’s day on the fourth Sunday in Lent which falls Today 22nd March, 2020, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West, Rt Revd Dr. James Olusola Odedeji have ordered all priests under the region not to hold services in their respective parish.
The Lagos State Government on Saturday announced a reduction in the number of people allowed in public gatherings to prevent further spread of coronavirus.
The government said the number of people allowed at any public gathering should not be more than 20, nullifying the previous limit of 50 people allowed to gather in public, including in churches and mosques.
Speaking to OPTIMUM TIMES, Archdeacon of Iba Archdeaconry, Ven. Dr. Reginald Okpala commended Lagos State government for taking the right measure in controlling the spread.
He said “we not having service is not intentional you will agree with me that when government says something and the church does not obey it is disobedient.”
However he opined that government should have this issue checkmated “we have seen other countries and the measures they took but I haven’t seen anything done by our leaders except stopping church services, markets are open, public transportation is still on and these are avenues the virus can be spread, but we believe that Christians and Muslims should obey.”
The Assistant Priest, Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Ogbonna added “the government would have started this since before now. This will definitely affect the finances of the church but what we are focused on is the safety of the people and obeying authorities.”
Our correspondent observed that the worshippers of the Anglican Church Agboroko, Lagos were turned back including the women who were dressed in their colourful uniforms for the mother’s day celebration.
The priest who stood at the entrance to the church after praying for the worshippers urged them to go home and be safe adding that it is expected of Christians to obey the leaders in authority.
He said “There is an instruction from the government that the church will not open today and I believe it is for our own good, so in order to show respect I have to stay here to pray for them to be safe and ask them to go back.”
“Yes women are prepared for their day but the exercise is for everyone but they have to bear with us and the government, I can not say if we will still have the mothering Sunday until we get another instruction from the diocese,” he said.
One of the women in the church said “This is not a religious fight, it is for our own good, initially they said we won’t be up to 50 but a new instruction came and it stated that we shouldn’t be up to 20 so we have to obey.”
“There is not need to reschedule the mothering Sunday because every day is the day of the Lord and since it is a yearly event we will celebrate next year,” he said.
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