Religious leaders seek reopening of churches

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By Mary Agidi

The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Ondo State, Rev. John Ayo-Oladapo and that of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Joshua Opayinka, have urged the state government to review her decision on closure of churches.

Ayo-Oladapo noted that church have the capability to control the congregation through a well-organised setting that would ensure physical distancing more than markets that people were allowed to patronise.

According to him, church leaders were also conscious of the need to contain the spread of the virus, noting that, there was also a need to gather and intervene for God’s mercy.

He said: ” We are 100 percent in support of the reopening of churches. We want to call upon God, this pandemic should take both medical and spiritual dimensions; we should not look at it as if the church is not a place where we can control ourselves and get things done rightly.

Corroborating him, the PFN Chairman noted that, although Christian leaders weren’t contending with the markets as everyone was a stakeholder in the economic activities, the church should be opened for spiritual purpose, saying spiritual controls the physical.

He said: “If markets are opened for economic reason, the church should also be opened for spiritual purpose; the spiritual strength will sustain the physical.

“Apart from that, church is more organized than the market. In the church, social distancing would be fulfilled, hand sanitisation would be observed, there would be somebody to monitor the crowd, unlike market and public vehicles where nobody is controlling them”.

Opayinka frowned at those against the reopening of the church, and described them as the enemies of the church.