Not all doors to places of worship open

DIFFERENT places of worship have different approaches to the relaxing of lockdown laws that will allow gatherings of up to 50 people, but no more.

Mosques, which will individually make their own decisions about how to open up, indicated that most Muslim places of worship would try to open as soon as possible and would adhere to government regulations.

A trustee at the North Beach Jamaat Khana, who asked not to be named, said a meeting would be held today to discuss the matter.

“We’ve done a lot of work, such as set up sanitising stations. We have just got to work out how it will be implemented,” he said.

Sidney Govindsamy, chairperson of the Clairwood Shree Siva Soobramoniar Temple, said it would be open and would limit the number of worshippers to 50 at a time from Monday.

“Social distancing will need to be observed and worshippers will have to wear masks when entering the temple,” he said.

“All devotees will be sanitised before entering the temple. A full sanitising process will start before the reopening, with daily cleaning and sanitising before and after services.”

He added that devotees’ temperatures would be checked and attendees listed for tracing and screening.

However, two Christian denominations were taking a more cautious approach.

The Roman Catholic Church’s Cardinal Wilfrid Napier said that the opening of churches would “not be permissible for a couple of weeks”.

“It would be foolhardy to do so,” he said, “when the worst is still to come. All we would need is one case (to cause a crisis).”

Napier said that much training, preparation and registration still had to take place.

Reverend Mervyn Singh of the St John The Divine Anglican Church in Glenwood said it would become more of a hazard than a help if churches were to open.

Rather than take advantage of the new relaxed lockdown laws, Anglican churches that were already Covid-19 compliant would spend June bringing those that were not up to standard.

“When we open up again we shall do it together, as a family,” Singh said.

It would be foolhardy to do so when the worst is still to come

Wilfrid Naipier

ROMAN CATHOLIC CARDINAL