Members desert Anglican, Catholic churches ahead of Easter

Members of Anglican and Catholic and Anglican churches in Anambra State are deserting their worship places ahead of the Easter period due to the ravaging threat of Coronavirus otherwise called COVID-19.

The churches shut their doors to their members last Sunday and resorted to Facebook and Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) radio broadcast to preach their sermons and directed their adherents to hook on to social media networks and on-air platforms.

At Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, Awka, where Palm Sunday Service was held to mark the final week of Lent and herald Easter Sunday, Archbishop of the Province on the Niger, Alexandar Ibezim defended the worshipers’ action, saying the Church asked them to stay away from service in line with government’s directives.

Ibezim, who is also Bishop of Awka Diocese, however, traced the Coronavirus pandemic to man’s sin, stressing, “We need God’s intervention to overcome the scourge.”

He said there was the need to preach the word of God for the deliverance of the leaders and the led in Nigeria and abroad, as well as those in isolation from fear, captivity and sudden destruction.

He noted that the period of COVID-19 pandemic was a temporary challenge and prayed for its termination. Also at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Awka, few worshippers who walked into the premises were disappointed that the usual Sunday Mass could not hold.

But those who got information about the conduct of Mass on Facebook and ABS radio broadcast hooked on between 9:30 am and 10:30 am to listen to the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Bishop Paulinus Ezeokafor deliver his sermon.

He admonished the well-to-do to use the opportunity to reach out to the less privileged, calling on the congregation to use the Holy Week to pray for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.