DURBAN - The KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council (KZNCC) has called for churches in the province to avail their church buildings as “Hope Centres” to be used for storage, distribution, testing or quarantining centres to complement the needs of the health system.
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organisation which represents over 250 churches across the province, had initially voted to go ahead with their Easter service. However in a statement released this week the council said: “
The weeks ahead are going to get much harder. Now is the time for us, as the Church at all levels, across the Province, to get ourselves connected, organised and get into action” for the inevitable brutal impact of the pandemic.”
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KZN Covid-19 church disaster response structure and plan which includes five Provincial Task Teams to lead and support responses at the municipality level has also been established.
“We need to be prepared to collaborate at this level. Our Ministers’ Fraternals need to be actively refocused on all the above. Dear Friends in Christ, now is a time for our congregations to act like the Good Samaritan rather than the Priest or the Levite. Let us imitate Jesus by committing and sacrificing our time, talent and resources to the victims of Covid-19. Let us be our brothers’ & sisters’ keepers,” said KZNCC.
Meanwhile, the Diakonia Council of Churches in KwaZulu-Natal encouraged church leaders to use technology to send the word of God to adherents. In Cape Town, Father Michael Weeder, dean of the Anglican St George’s Cathedral, will hold mass via live stream on Facebook.
Most churches around the world have taken extraordinary measures - using social media live tools as well as pre-recording services and uploading them on YouTube.
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