Most churches across Barbados seem willing to hold strain within the confines of the COVID-19 protocols until the way is clear for further relaxation.
However, at least one major church denomination representing some 8,400 members, is calling for further ease in the restrictions that include physical distancing.
“You can’t be contented. Of course, you have to ride with it because of what the church stands for as body…and relationships and interactions are crucial, you want to see a further relaxation,” Executive Secretary of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies (PAWI) Rev Selwyn Brathwaite told Barbados TODAY this afternoon.
But the umbrella Barbados Evangelical Association (BEA) said its membership comprising some 50 religious entities is generally contented with sticking to the protocols at the moment.
“We still acknowledge that there is a health risk to our congregants and in that regard, we still want to be able to balance the ability to worship freely with their health,” declared Vice President of the BEA Dr Winston Clarke.
He said that the BEA has been in the vanguard of communicating with Government authorities as the association sought to decide what direction the church should take.
“We have been in it from the very beginning, just talking with the powers that be and listening to them and sharing our views with them. Generally, they have been acquiescent to many of the views that we have been sharing with them,” added the senior official, whose organisation represents thousands of believers.
Dr Clarke insisted that the sanitizing of hands and the taking of temperatures were still critical measures to be continued at this stage.
“The larger churches will have a challenge with having to record names and addresses and telephone numbers; but we understand why that would be a necessity also at this time. So generally, I would say yes, we are satisfied. Many churches are now worshipping for an hour-and-a-half and that is a reasonable time to worship for most evangelical churches,” the BEA Vice President pointed out.
He said that the larger churches will have to find whatever methodology would work for them in complying with the COVID-19 restrictions.
“We are hoping that by January or February we would be able to get the vaccine and we will be able to return to a point of normality as soon as possible,” Dr Clarke said.
Meanwhile, the association that represents the single largest Christian denomination in Barbados has declared that its members are also willing to hold strain within the parameters of the health protocols as long as is required.
Chairman of the Barbados Christian Council (BXC), Major Darrell Wilkinson of the Salvation Army under whose umbrella the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army fall, said they have no issue with the protocols right now.
“Things are going okay because things are more relaxed right now, I must say. There are just a few restrictions with people coming in [to the country]. I think the matter of people coming in with the quarantine and so on, that is understandable,” the BXC Chairman told Barbados TODAY as he took an even more macro view of the situation.
He is adamant that Barbadians or visitors should not “fight against” the requirement for persons to have a second PCR test on arrival in the country, even if they are asymptomatic.
“If we go against that, the chances are that we might find ourselves in some predicament, seeing that persons who are tested negative on the first test sometimes test positive on the second test, and that is of concern. It is not in the majority, but it only takes one or two to disrupt a whole nation. Other than that we don’t see an issue with the protocols,” Major Wilkinson said.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
