The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FEW churches in New Providence held drive-up services over the weekend after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis permitted them to worship under stringent new guidelines.

Some people, however, braved rainy weather to assemble in church yards yesterday after nearly two months of not being able to traverse the island’s streets on Sundays.

Instead of hand-clapping and dancing, car horns were often used as instruments of worship.

Some pastors stood on porches outside their church buildings as their sermons blared from speakers while others remained in buildings as church-goers congregated outside.

According to new rules the Office of the Prime Minister released on Friday, the services can only be held as drive-up events where attendees are seated in their cars. Vehicles must be parked at least three feet apart and communion is not allowed. There has to be one offering station and offering baskets cannot be passed from vehicle to vehicle. Those at high risk for COVID-19 or who have co-morbidities are not to attend the drive-up service. Family Islands reopened to commercial activity can host church services under less restrictive guidelines.

After the OPM’s announcement, Bishop Laish Boyd, bishop of the Anglican diocese of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, as well as Archbishop Patrick Pinder, Catholic archbishop of Nassau, announced Anglican and Catholic churches will not resume services at this time.

“It is wise to proceed with caution and to ensure that each step forward is firmly planted,” Bishop Boyd said.

Archbishop Pinder said the Catholic church needs time to assess and work out how best to “resume liturgical life given the specific conditions stipulated.”

Bishop Delton Fernander, head of the Bahamas Christian Council, suggested church officials were surprised by Dr Minnis’ prohibition against communion.

“We’ve written to the Prime Minister so we were taken aback with some of the statements in the order which we already addressed with the Catholic and Anglican denominations,” he said, adding the rule against communion “was really challenging for us.”

“Some denominations use disposables (when having communion),” he said. “You get your all-in-one and you take the communion and discard it and there is no need to touch it or handle it. It’s created to be sterile and it is sealed and broken only by the person partaking in communion. In denominations where they share a cup that has been discontinued so some of the concerns they thought they had about the church, the church has already advanced.”

Ryan Brown, the son of Apostle Leon Wallace, pastor of the Voice of Deliverance Church, said the drive-up service is for the moment the best of a difficult situation, noting that not even 20 percent of his church’s members showed up for yesterday’s service.

“We still have to practice social distancing and stuff like that,” he said. “People want hope and they want kind of a normalcy and this is the best we can do so the fact that people can still get that message of hope is good. We try to accommodate folks in any way that we can.”

Vernita Josey, member of the Commonwealth Mission Baptist Church in Elizabeth Estates, said she is praying for the day she can fellowship with Christians in her church again.

“We don’t really like this but it’s the law of the land, it’s what the highest authority says we have to do and we’re not going to let anything stop us,” she said. “We’ll worship no matter what.”

For her, attending drive-up service is better than watching via Zoom or Facebook.

“Sometimes my internet freaks out on a Sunday morning and I’ve been missing some of the worship time. Now I’m here I can hear everything so I give God praise for that.”