Observing the COVID-19 protocols imposed by the Government was a high priority for those churches that opted to have their annual watch night service to commemorate the start of the new year.

When the Jamaica Observer visited some churches in the Corporate Area and St Catherine on New Year’s Eve, church leaders were quick to highlight that their buildings were holding no more than the 100 requisite number of people, masks were being worn, congregants were sanitised and social distance was being observed, as stipulated by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

The Jamaica Evangelistic Centre’s Pastor Davis Grant told the Sunday Observer that in order to ensure that his members did not feel slighted because of the limited number of people permitted to enter the premises, the service was also streamed online.

“We do our live stream so most of our members are watching via live stream. Prior to COVID we easily would have had a thousand people in church,” Grant said.

“For us at the Jamaica Evangelistic Centre, we have definitely decided to observe what the Government has asked us to do. But, because the tradition of Jamaicans is that everybody wants to come to a watch night service, if they have never been to service for the entire year, they want to be at a watch night service. To God be the glory we have been able to, as best [as] possible, monitor that. If you recognise, even the gates are closed,” he continued.

Noting that he was grateful for the understanding that his congregants had shown as it related to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Grant also stated, “I’ve come to appreciate the fact that God is not just in church, God is everywhere, so although they are not able to meet in the sanctuary, wherever they are God is there.”

Pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church in Kingston, Reverend Devon Dick, said that although the building can comfortably hold up to 1,700 congregants, 30 people were registered to physically celebrate the end of 2021 in the church.

“We are in the middle of a pandemic so we take the temperature and we sanitise hands before, and as you can see everybody is wearing masks and we [will] sanitise the rectory after people finish. You recognise, they say that we are in a fourth wave so we are not taking any chances, people are six feet apart, aside from families, so we take it very seriously. And so far we have not heard of anybody getting the COVID-19 at church,” Dick told the Sunday Observer.

He added that it was an improvement over last year when the church did not host any such service and instead had an early rise service on New Year’s Day.

“Some other churches had their watch night service via Zoom. Because we wanted a face-to-face thing we had ours at 6:00 am on New Year’s Day.

“We believe that all good things come from God, we believe that life comes from God. We have life not because of our own goodness, but it’s just God’s gift to us. Since He has been so good to us, we worship him for protecting us over the year when so many died, whether it’s from killings, whether it’s from road accidents or COVID-19, we have been spared. I believe it’s for a particular purpose, and that purpose is to help others in the new year,” Dick stated.

When the Sunday Observer visited Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine, all COVID-19 protocols were being observed. Worshippers were seen raising their hands in praise reverently at the urging of Bishop Delford Davis, who encouraged them to do so in the “name of victory.”

“You deserve victory,” Davis told his congregants, who were seated approximately six-feet apart and wearing masks.

Meanwhile, Bishop Kevin Johnson, leader of the Portmore New Testament Church of God, also in St Catherine, underscored his members’ respect for COVID-19 protocols.

“There is no reason to stop doing that now. The COVID protocol is for us, it is for our own protection and our own safety, so it makes sense to observe the protocols. I’m really happy that more persons can come out. Especially this time of year there are a lot of persons who may only visit a church at this time and with the restriction somewhat allowing at least a hundred persons, it will give more persons the opportunity to do that,” Johnson said, as he explained that for those members who were not able, physically, to be in the church, they could access the service virtually since it was being streamed live on the churches Youtube channel.