Clergyman calls for return to church worship in person
A senior clergyman has expressed concern about the decline in church attendance since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Founding pastor of Redemption Worship Centre in Toronto, Canada, Archbishop Dr C Lloyd Battieste, says there is a big drop in church attendance as many people have not gone back to corporate worship.
Archbishop Dr Battieste was the guest speaker recently at the Freedom Evangelical Association (FEA) School of Glory graduation in Portmore, St Catherine. Dr Battieste, who is Jamaican-born, is also the chancellor of the school.
Some Jamaican churches are still affected by a decline in attendance resulting from their forced temporary closures during the pandemic. The Government, at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, limited gatherings to as low as 10 and later announced the closure of many public places, including churches during pandemic.
Without worshippers, many churches were forced to live stream their services. But although churches have returned to in-person worship, some have continued to stream live and many worshippers have opted to stay home instead of attending services in person.
Said Archbishop, Battieste: “We don’t have kneeling pads anymore, but we have good cameras and nobody wants to come to church anymore because they can see it on YouTube and Daytube and everybody else tube.”
The archbishop reminded the audience that church still has good theology:
“But what we need in this time and age is the good, old-fashion ‘kneeology’; what we need is the firepower of the old-time saints.”
The archbishop also said while he likes modern conveniences when faced with a choice between modern and God’s presence, he would choose the presence of God.
Meanwhile, senior pastor for FEA and dean of faculty for FEA School of Glory, Bishop Dr Romeon Facey, said the charismatic Pentecostal churches in Jamaica believe that people who are anointed do not need to equip themselves with religious education. Dr Facey said seeing the crisis facing Jamaica now, there is a need for more religious ministers.
“Anointing without wisdom is annoying. We have a lot of annoying people in Jamaica saying a lot of annoying things because they are not equipped.”
He also encouraged churchgoers to empower themselves with education.
The FEA School of Glory is a Bible educational institution that offers three levels of education in biblical studies and theology: diploma, associate degree and bachelor’s degree. The school has been in operation for five years. Mount Olive Bible Institute in Canada accredits its courses. In addition to the graduates from Jamaica, online students from The Bahamas, United States, among other countries, graduated from the institution last week.