KAMPALA, Uganda – The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the patience of some devoted leaders in Africa who care about losing followers and investments as restrictions on meetings continue.Some evangelical Christian leaders in Uganda have introduced a crusade with the now universal word of protest: “I can’t breathe.”
Its members swear that they will sometimes wear the burlap suits that resemble the purse worn by biblical prophets.
“Uganda is a God-fearing country but unfortunately, due to closure, the citizens of our wonderful country come in a combined country to seek God’s intervention,” Betty Ochan, leader of the opposition at the Ugandan National Assembly, recently wrote in the local newspaper.Daily Monitor.” Satan takes control. If others do not worship God in a combined country, they derail spiritually.”
From Nigeria to Zimbabwe, others are talking, or sneaking into worship, because they argue that the limits of faith can lead to a crisis of faith.
“I am dismayed that other people have the audacity to tell us how many hours we can spend in church,” said Chris Oyakhilome, president of the mega church in Lagos known as Christ Embassy.”How dare you, what the hell do you think you are?”
Religious in Nigeria resumed last month, but are limited to one hour, a serious test for some in a country where worship can spread from Sunday morning to afternoon.
Some ministers in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, have settled a separate controversy for saying that fans continue to pay tithing for designated bank accounts.Some ministers have long been accused of maintaining a luxurious lifestyle at the expense of their supporters.
But the most important considerations have their origins in the very nature of faith.
“The meeting is very much from an African perspective,” said Christopher Byaruhanga, professor of ancient and systematic theology at Uganda Christian University. “We Africans need to live in a community. The coronavirus is now redefining this community.
Coming in combination with worship is a component of the “responsibility” that builds accepting as true when others express their stories, he said.
The “general degrees of devoted commitment” in sub-Saharan Africa are among the highest in the world, according to a 2018 study through the Pew Research Center.The number of Christians in the region increased from around 7 million in 1900 to 470 million in 2010, home to 21% of the world’s Christians and 15% of all Muslims.
Christians strongly associate their religion with the brick and cement buildings of their parishes, said the Reverend Charles Odurkami, Bishop Emeritus of Uganda.
“Africans are notoriously religious,” he said. Of course, in Africa, other people love it with two feet, with one foot in classical culture and Christianity.
Another devoted leader in Uganda, a self-proclaimed prophet who leads a congregation of thousands of people in Kampala, has criticized attempts to negotiate with the government to reopen places of worship.
“It’s disrespectful Array … if an alleged pastor gets on his knees and begs a politician to open up,” Elvis Mbonye recently told a local broadcaster. “I’m not going to ask for permission, the law, the instructions.”
Hajji Ramadhan Mugalu, general secretary of Uganda’s Supreme Muslim Council, said Muslims “lose out in the Array …mosques remain closed.”
“If galleries and grocery shopping malls have been opened, our prayer is that those places of worship will also be opened,” he said.”Yes, you can pray at home, but prayer in congregation is very powerful.”
Authorities in Uganda and other countries say they will adhere to the recommendation of fitness experts to allow acts of worship to resume their overall activities.However, in Tanzania, President John Magufuli has alarmed fitness experts by saying that divine force would be offering opposite coverage to The country has not updated its number of infections, just over 500, since April.
In South Africa, which accounts for about 1.2 million who showed coronavirus infections on the African continent, the pandemic has caused people to date with their faith, said Mosa Sona, Bishop of Grace Bible Church in Johannesburg Municipality, Soweto.
“Am I a believer who practices his religion in the midst of a crowd, in a construction called a church, or does it matter when I’m home alone?” asked Sona, whose church was one of the first to broadcast sermons online.
Others insist on staying in touch with their co-religionists, no matter what pandemic restrictions say.
In Zimbabwe, the government encouraged others to pray at home, but this is not an option for Amos Mazikande, who recently went to see a “prophet” with his apostolic organization to seek a cure for his daughter’s persistent headaches.
The family circle used secondary roads to avoid police in the direction of an open flat where detainees are being held in the capital, Harare.
“The coronavirus will be defeated through the Holy Spirit, so we don’t have to worry,” Mazikande said.
Across the country, apostolic believers line up to collect “blessed” water, oil, pieces of cloth, and clay vessels that they say offer cover for the “evil spirits” that bring poverty and disease.
In recent service, a dozen faithful hued over to sing and dance, some with a chin mask.Under a nearby tree, a woman knelt as the leader sprayed water and vigorously shook her head in an obvious healing session.
Some say these scenes show that the pandemic strengthens people’s faith, no matter how much they adore.
Etienne Bonkoungou, chaplain of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, said he had noticed that since the recent resumption of general devoted services, others who did not attend before the pandemic now appear weekly.
“People felt that he was getting closer to God because they said that only God can deliver them,” Bonkoungou said.
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Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe; Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg; Sam Mednick in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed.
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