By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Health yesterday announced that restrictions on churches have been further relaxed, allowing them to operate at 75 percent seating capacity.

Bahamas Christian Council President Bishop Delton Fernander praised the government’s decision.

He also said in view of the relaxed restrictions, officials are now hopeful that churches will be able operate in full capacity by Easter once virus cases remain low.

Earlier in the pandemic, churches were operating at a maximum seating capacity of 25 percent with services limited to one hour. The government later increased churches’ occupancy limit to 50 percent in February in response to declining COVID cases.

Yesterday, Bishop Fernander said the move came after several meetings were held between the BCC and health officials on the issue and added that the council is now petitioning to have the church restrictions entirely removed by Easter.

“The church is particularly thankful that we’re able to negotiate the transition of 50 percent (capacity) to 75 percent with a view that if all hold, we will be 100 percent by Easter. We would like to thank the minister of health and his team for working with us so that we can transition safely, cautiously and worship God during this Lent season,” he said.

“That’s how we got 75 percent because we (are) working on a schedule and the time we all decided on.”

Last year, the BCC president told The Tribune the council felt certain restrictions on churches made no sense and added that some churches were ignoring them, especially considering the many political events that were being held with only minimal constraints.

Asked yesterday if he felt that many churches were following their own rules and operating at full capacity despite the restrictions, Bishop Fernander told The Tribune: “I don’t think so.”

Concerns that church services could be super spreader events for COVID-19 were renewed last year after it was revealed multiple members of the Church of God either died or had to be hospitalised with COVID- 19 after attending a youth convention.

However, church officials said they did not believe the event was to blame.

Yesterday, Bishop Fernander also commented on the escalating crime rates in the country which he noted as a concern.

This comes after three men were killed in separate shooting incidents this week.

“We are preparing a symposium on crime, and we have asked Pastor Dave Burrows to give us an update on the gang activity happening in our cities and we are heading the initiative in that regard and so the council is already on the ground working and we have churches in the communities where the shootings take place,” the religious leader said.

“After our symposium, we will have a white paper and what we plan to do is empower pastors to really change the focus of our young people through the proper training to those that are specialists in the area and we are working on our white paper in collaboration with the state to figure out what the church can do in collaboration of the state. We were the ones who put forward the gun amnesty (programme), some ministers accept it and some don’t, but we wait to see what the government of the day will do.”