News
Welcome back to worship in the age of COVID
Churches, temples, kovils and mosques are working out ways to embrace the faithful again following the government’s green light for religious institutions to open doors to devotees while keeping to COVID-19 safety regulations.
Only 50 worshippers can be permitted inside at any time, and they must wear masks, wash hands and keep 1m away from each other, the Health Ministry said.
Once religious institutions have drawn up plans to accommodate worship within the guidelines each must obtain clearance from the area Public Health Inspector (PHI) before opening up premises.
For Catholics, Archbishop’s House held an urgent meeting on Friday and set out a plan to hold multiple masses with reduced congregations.
Catholic Press Director Fr. Camillus Fernando said Mass would be offered on a zonal basis and the devotees of each zone would be informed of which day in the week they could attend church. Each church has around nine zones and masses would be conducted throughout the week.
No festival celebrations or processions will be held until normalcy returns to the country, and there is a temporary ban on kissing any statues in church.
During Mass, devotees are expected to wear masks right through the celebration except when receiving Holy Communion. There will be no handshakes when exchanging the sign of peace or exchanging of seating positions during the service.
The common practice of placing the Holy Communion on the tongue of devotees will continue. Those uncomfortable with that procedure at this time would, as a special and temporary concession, be allowed to receive the Holy Eucharist in their palm, and the Church will insist that it be consumed in the presence of the priest.
The Department of Buddhist Affairs has directed the 12,000 temples to open within Health Ministry guidelines.
It has not issued any additional directives to devotees but has requested that Daham Pasals conducted in schools be allowed to resume by next month following a submission by the Buddha Sasana.
The department’s Commissioner-General, Sunanda Kariyaperuma, said a timetable has been drawn up for classes. Grades 11, 12 and 13 are to begin lessons on July 12, and Grades 3-10 on July 26. For Grades 1 and 2, Daham Pasals will begin next Sunday, he said.
All Hindu temples have been asked to follow Health Ministry guidelines when reopening and to avoid poojas and alms-givings that would draw too many people into the kovils, the Hindu Religious Affairs Department’s Assistant Director, R. Kargen, said.
It has been suggested that only one door of a kovil be open and that worshippers wear masks, wash hands and keep the 1m distance rule.
All mosques are to reopen on Monday, the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural Affairs said. The board had earlier decided that only individual prayers would be allowed for the present, but yesterday it permitted the conduct of daily congregational prayers and Friday jummah prayers, provided that the mosques adhered to the Health Ministry guidelines.
However, ceremonies such as Nikah Majlis or marriage ceremonies are still disallowed.
Although the government has set a limit of 50 worshippers in a mosque premises at any time, the Wakf Board (the apex body governing mosques), as an additional precaution, has decided to halve that number for smaller mosques.