Government and local faith-based organisations have agreed that the new COVID-19 restrictions on the numbers which are allowed to attend worship services cannot be applied as a one-size-fits-all.
As a result, a 20-member team of volunteers has been drawn from various houses of worship across the board to supplement the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit in assessing the appropriate numbers applicable to each religious place.
This solution came out of a meeting held on Wednesday with Government authorities to work out issues surrounding outbreaks of the virus in some churches, to fine-tune the protocols and to address the environmental suitability of certain buildings in which worshippers gather.
The discussions, conducted via the Zoom platform, involved leaders of the Barbados Christian Council (BXC), the Barbados Evangelical Association (BEA), the Barbados Muslim Association (BMA) and the Jewish community.
There was a common position by the various faith-based organisations that the talks were fruitful and satisfying and that a partnership had been established with government for the way it treats to future COVID measures involving this community.
“We as a faith-based community recognize that the COVID unit is only six members and they cannot visit all of these places of worship in a given time. For example, I don’t think they can do it in a week. We are offering 20 persons who volunteer to be trained by the COVID unit to assist the COVID unit to follow through on checking these places of worship where they have to give information on the buildings,” said chairperson of the BXC Dr The Rev. Cicely Athill-Horsford.
“They have to talk about their seating plans and based on those and what the COVID Unit would recommend, the numbers would indicate. For example, Mount Tabor can hold 144 persons at six feet apart. The COVID unit will come in and look at the ventilation, look at the layout and I would request to have the unit say to me ‘yes,’ they agree the 144 can be at worship. So the volunteers would assist them in checking all of this,” Dr Athill-Horsford disclosed.
She said the COVID unit and the Government realized that one size cannot fit all with the number of persons in the churches and so they started since yesterday to identify places of worship.
The BXC head also expressed concern about the increasing incidence of the virus among children in Barbados and is therefore appealing to all Barbadians to get vaccinated.
“We are offering our facilities to the Ministry of Health and the Vaccination Unit if they can use our facilities to vaccinate persons in the community so they don’t have to go far to the vaccination centres,” the Christian Council chair told Barbados TODAY.
She said member churches of the BXC would also be made available for events such as health fairs and food fairs.
“The government has accepted our recommendation, but it is all dependent on the availability of the healthcare workers who would have to administer and man these centres,” Dr Athill-Horsford stated.
President of the Barbados Evangelical Association Dr Nigel Taylor who also attended the meeting said the government had agreed to a request from the churches to be partners in the COVID response.
“The church is by far a large part of the population and it has been supporting the protocols left right and centre. We believe that instead of hearing things for the first time by a directive from the AG, it would be nice if we could input directly into the directive. In other words, so we can share a perspective, because no one person has all the answers,” Dr Taylor told Barbados TODAY.
The BEA head contended that there are people who the churches could easily reach which the government can’t.
“It can also happen that the churches can avail themselves in the promotion of the vaccine and when, if necessary, make some of their facilities available…but the whole thing is to form a partnership. Persons would have left knowing we need to work hand-in-hand to bring this thing under control,” he said.
Dr Taylor also said that one of the concerns raised was the proper ventilation of the places of worship. “Some things that were discussed, you might hear of those a little later, but right now it is just in the talking stage, so I would not want to say anything right now,” Dr Taylor pointed out.
“The government is willing to work with the churches to assist in coming to a standard where the numbers in the church can be increased; where the health of the persons in the church can be without any prejudice such as having a poor saturation of air,” the evangelical association leader said.
The church head said all the leaders who attended the meeting now have to make sure that all the aspects of the discussion are acted upon in order to protect the safety of the parishioners and to minimize the number of persons with COVID. He too said the government would be assisting the churches with regards to improving their air flow issues.
He also thought today’s meeting was healthy and fruitful.
Secretary of the Muslim Association Sulieman Bulbulia echoed the sentiments of the other leaders who described the talks as fruitful.
Government had recently issued a new directive restricting churches and other faith-based bodies to 25 attendees at six feet apart following a new church cluster numbering 13 people.(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
