The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

BISHOP Laish Boyd, head of the Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas & Turks and Caicos Islands, said although there is a spike in COVID cases, the Anglican community will continue to operate churches under the current government issued protocols.

After in-person church services were shut down in March and after months of negotiations, religious leaders received approval from the government to resume worship in churches beginning June 6.

Under the new protocols, churches have to close doors by 1pm on days of worship and are only allowed a portion of membership at a time. Among other rules, congregation members have to sit six feet apart, wear masks and sanitise before entering church.

The Tribune spoke to other religious leaders in the community and for the most part, they said they are going to continue to adhere to the current protocols put in place by the government and suggested by the Bahamas Christian Council.

“Prior to the lockdown we had laid down a set of protocols by which we were going to operate and we have been sticking to those over the last six weeks that services had been resumed,” said Bishop Boyd. “So, the only thing that we will be doing is continuing our protocols - practicing and promoting and encouraging our protocols throughout all of our churches.”

The Anglican bishop believes once COVID preventative protocols are followed the numbers will be contained.

“Our belief is that protocols save lives and when you engage in good practice in many places over a period of time, that’s what keeps the spread of infection down. That’s all we will be doing, just redoubling our efforts on that which we are already engaged in.”

Rev CB Moss, of Mt Olive Baptist Church, also says for the time being nothing will change with the way his church operates.

“We will continue as usual and that is in compliance to the latest emergency order concerning New Providence,” Rev Moss said. “We maintain the physical distancing, do all the sanitising processes, we wear masks and we restrict our services to no more than one hour.

“So that is adequate for now. We feel that people need to have that personal contact even at a distance. We also have contact over social media, but that physical contact at 11am on Sundays is vital to us. Until further restrictions are imposed, we will continue to do that.”

Head pastor at First Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Bahamas), Pastor HG Ferguson, said nothing has changed at that church and protocols are being followed, strictly.

“What we are planning to do is continue on with the government protocols as we are doing,” Mr Ferguson said. “We have never actually taken down our protocols, even when things looked good. Yes, we are concerned about the recent spikes in our COVID numbers, but we have always kept up with our social distancing and sanitisation. We will continue on as usual with the protocols.”

After a meeting Thursday night, the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA), headed by Bishop Theophilus Rolle, will make the decision on whether to take more precautions than what are currently in place.

“We are thinking about changing some things,” the bishop told The Tribune. “We have a meeting at six o’clock this evening (Thursday) to discuss the same. The service is going to continue on as usual this Sunday, but we might change things for next week. We will decide that tonight and make the necessary changes if needed.”