Covid-19: 64 percent of clerics back reopening of churches, study says

Most religious leaders want the government to reopen places of worship despite the rising cases of Covid-19 infections, a new poll shows.

Places of worship including churches and mosque were closed on March 13 to control the spread of the deadly virus that has so far killed 137 Kenyans.

The survey dubbed “The State of the Church in Kenya during Covid-19 pandemic” was sponsored by ShahidiHub Africa Limited and participants were pastors and church leaders.

According to ShahidiHub Africa founder Elkana Cheboi, the online survey was open to all church leaders in Kenya across 161 denominations.

PLACES OF WORSHIP

The survey was hosted by the US-based online data service company, Survey Monkey who processed and, analysed the data.

The survey comes at a time when the government has appointed an Inter-faith Council led by Nyeri Catholic Archbishop Anthony Muheria to oversee the possibility of reopening of places of worship.

The 16-member council is expected to develop stringent protocols for the phased re-opening of places of worship.

At the same time, the council is also expected to come up with protocols for celebrations of weddings, funerals and other religious ceremonies in the places of worship.

The religious groups are also expected to ensure strict physical and social distancing guidelines as issued by the Ministry of Health are observed.

At least 5,533 Kenyans have so far contracted the diseases and more than 130 have succumbed to the deadly virus.

The poll was conducted among 429 church leaders in 33 counties out of 47 between May 22 and June 20.

Over 64 percent of church leaders want the churches reopened immediately while 16 percent believe the places of worship should be reopened once the curve is flattened.

SAFETY GUIDELINES

Another 14 percent want churches reopened with safety guidelines put in place especially in areas with low infection rates.

Five percent of the church leaders said the churches should not be reopened until the covid-19 pandemic is eliminated.

Over 83 percent support creation of online churches and reactivating the dormant ones. At least 79 percent said that their churches have transitioned to online platforms.

This could be taken to mean that most church leaders could in future dedicate their preaching to online platforms. Another 21 percent did not transition to online platforms

Those who failed to move to online attribute this to lack of finances and smart phones and poor connectivity.

Despite the challenges, the church leaders managed to get in touch with their flock through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, zoom, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

At least 31 percent of those polled said it was difficult to reach their followers on social media.

The polls show that children have not been given adequate devotional time during the Covid-19 period.

The report shows that a critical segment of the church members – the youth and the elderly were ignored as they were told to stay at home.  

The pollsters say that giving any offerings to the church dipped by more than 50 percent as majority of the faithful were unemployed while others had their businesses disrupted.

“This significantly impaired the church activities which entirely depend on the offerings by the members,” the pollsters say.

PAYING SALARIES

The survey also shows that 50 percent of those polled said paying salaries to the workers and rent was a big challenge during the pandemic.

“Church leaders are finding it hard to mobilise their members who are facing many difficulties to survive during this period,” the report says.

They explained that in the near future, some churches may be closed or forced to move to online platforms.

Another 42 percent said that among the services they maintained to serve their followers include counselling, prayer support, supporting vulnerable groups, supporting children Homes and those affected by natural calamities like floods.

“Some church leaders were also going out of their way to pay rent to their poor members and training others to make soap to wash hands during the crisis and earn a living,” the report says.

Further, the poll says that 60 percent of the pastors and church leaders have created partnerships with other churches and other organisations.

“The crisis provided an opportunity to churches to collaborate at grassroots to address local needs that affect the communities,” states the report.

The objective of the survey was to establish how the churches adapted fast to the new forms of worshiping, and how the future church in Kenya might look like.

The error margin was +/-4.2 percent.