One hour is not enough - clergy

GOVERNMENT should consider increasing the duration for Sunday worship from the current one hour, a clergyman has said.

According to Sanctuary of Grace Ministries overseer, Emmanuel Banda, the one hour which Government gave as a maximum time for a church service in wake of the coronavirus pandemic was not enough.

He said the Church had been allocated less time for prayers, yet bars and nightclubs had been given leeway to sell intoxicating drinks for a long time.

Reverend Banda said Government should revisit the criteria used to arrive at such a decision.

In an interview with the

Daily Nation in Livingstone, Rev Banda wondered why bars were given more hours than the church where people preached the word of God.

“We don’t understand why Government has come up with such a decision. Why reduce hours for a Church service and increase hours for a bar.

“How can we respect bars than the Church? I know it could be the issue of money and business but we are urging Government to look at it again if really we are a Christian nation,” Rev Banda said.

But the spiritual leader for the Livingstone Muslim Community Sheikh Shu’ayb Manda said his community did not see anything wrong with Government’s decision to reduce the number of hours for praying in the wake of COVID-19.

Sheikh Manda told the Daily Nation that for Muslims, the one hour was sufficient for prayers. “We must understand that COVID-19 does not choose whether black or white, it affects everyone as is a global virus

“Muslims don’t have a problem with one hour being allocated as time for praying because we pray five times in day of which we only spend about 20 minutes,” he said.