The new Catholic Archbishop of Juba in South Sudan is appealing to Christians to pray at least five times a day against the coronavirus to prevent it from spreading further.
Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla advised the people to fight against the pandemic through prayers.
He calls on everybody to follow the necessary preventive measures from the ministry of health against the virus.
‘The priest will celebrate the Holy week mass with their bishop only. We must all pray to our Father the Lord’s Prayer five times every day from now until the end of the pandemic. The necessary adaptation of measures e.g. in health prevention, health care and all preventive measures such as avoiding social contacts meetings etc are of absolute priority. Pease, ensure preventive behaviour and measures in your offices in accordance to the national regulations”, Archbishop Ameyu urged.
The metropolitan Archbishop also urged the faithful to attend Sunday masses through radio or TV for at least 30 days to avoid overcrowding and to monitor COVID-19 pandemic.
He said only sisters working in hospitals are allowed to attend to patients with caution.
‘Holy mass on Sunday will be celebrated only by priests. All the faithful in the parishes are not to attend except via radio or TV. Priest can attend to sick calls, but with great care for their own health. Choir practices are not allowed. Sisters who are involved in hospitals are allowed to help the sick with caution’, Archbishop Ameyu explained.
Early this week, Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi Arama also announced to all Christians to pray at home on Sundays because of coronavirus until further notice.
He added that only Bishops, pastors, lay readers and evangelists will continue in Churches with normal services to intercede for God’s mercy and protection upon South Sudanese.
Islamic Council chairperson in Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State Sheik Ali Hassan has also made the same declaration to commit to the presidential decree to prevent spread of the virus.
He said the Council has informed all mosques to suspend all prayers.
Ali adds that the mosques will be reminding the faithful about prayers’ time so they can pray at their various places.