Chizokho Vero
Kohima | June 12
Following Nagaland government’s decision to allow religious places to open, Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) General Secretary, Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho today stated Churches should put in place plans to reopen with proper education and information.
It should operate their ministries according to the SOP issued by competent authority, he said.
Rev Keyho however stressed that “Our task at the moment is to mitigate the virus and prevent community spread.”
“The SOP is a very general one pertaining to resuming congregational worship. At any rate, we must put social distancing as primary because the virus looks for a host to spread,” he stated.
In a communiqué addressed to Executive Secretaries/Director Baptist Associations under NBCC on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Churches during COVID-19 pandemic, Rev Keyho stated, “Our journey for the last over two months, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been a challenging one.”
He thanked the association leadership for complying with the directive for the safety of the community by suspending corporate worship and foregoing other association/church programs.
“With the relaxation of the lockdown, Churches are being allowed to reopen. However, we cannot take the situation lightly because the threat of the virus is now more real than it was when the first lockdown began,” he stated
“We must cautiously take our given context into consideration as we start to reopen our churches for corporate worship,” he said.
“God has answered our prayers in many ways but this should not make us complacent and neglect our social responsibility as conscientious Christians. Rather we must be more careful and watchful. Looking at our facilities and the reality we are facing, we are called to greater preparedness to stop community spread at all cost,” Rev Keyho stated.
