With the ongoing pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19), the president of Ghana took drastic measures of suspending all public and social activities including religious activities for four weeks all in the interest of public safety. This directive has got a positive and negative impact on religious bodies as a whole.
The positive effects of this directive in my view is that families can take time off their usual religious protocols that are followed in their places of worship to spend time bonding spiritually with each other together with their children. Families can take this is an opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their God and to grow their knowledge and understanding of His word.
With our current social and work lifestyle, little or no time is spent with our extended family which is very important in our Ghanaian set but with this directive, people can make time to reach out to their extended families. Also, this will give people the opportunity to reflect on their purpose of worship and will help people to rely more on their God then men.
This will help people to understand that going to our places of worship is not the only means by which God answers prayers and that wherever we find ourselves and pray God will hear and answer us accordingly. The directive will help people especially religious leaders explore other mediums of reaching out to a wider audience.
This is an opportunity for religious leaders to explore the advantages of the internet and this will help them to understand the fact that church goes beyond the auditorium in our modern era and that there are several ways of preaching the word and winning souls. Notwithstanding, this directive has got a negative impact also.
In another instance, the suspension will greatly affect the financial flow of the places of worship because the inflow of offerings will cease for a while. Most worship centers depend largely on the offerings of their worshippers to run their facilities and for the period of the ban religious leader will face some form of financial burden.
Also, religious leaders can lose their followers during the period because some followers may get too comfortable with not going to their places of worship that even after the ban is lifted they will still find it difficult to go back to their usual religious routines.
The idle mind is the devil’s playground, if care is not taken, people can indulge in activities that are detrimental to themselves, families and society at large. As we continue to pray for God to intervene, let’s continue to take stringent precautionary measures to battle this global pandemic
Source: Angela Nana Adjoa Adepa Aikins
Baatsona, Spintex
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