Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers to pray from home temporarily until COVID virus is defeated
borkena
April 1, 2020
A day after the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council passed a decision to suspend Mosque Prayers temporarily, Ethiopian Church introduced a similar measure to fight the Coronavirus.
The Ethiopian church cut down the number of deacons and priests serving in the church across the country. According to Ethiopian Church News source, Hara Ze Tewahdo, the decision is based on the cannons of the church and advice from health professionals.
The Holy Synod also decided that the Patriarch of the Church, Abune Mathias, will be isolating himself for prayer and fasting starting from April 1, 2020. He will not be meeting with people.
Priests assigned to daily service will be restricted to church only and will be served with daily meals. The rest of the worshippers are advised to limit themselves to their homes and pray from home.
Universities, Colleges, and Priest training institutes in the country will be closed until further notice. The church allowed the government to use those facilities belonging to the church to use them as COVID 19 patients isolation and treatment centers.
Moreover, the Ethiopian Church donated three million Ethiopian birr to help the government’s effort to reverse the spread of COVID 19.
The Ethiopian church has several orphanages across the country and has called on members of the church to provide them with sanitation and food supplies.
Ethiopian Orthodox Church is believed to have well over 50 million followers. It also has followers outside of Ethiopia in other African countries, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, to mention a few.
The number of Coronavirus patients is increasing in Ethiopia. As of April 1, 2020, the total number of patients is 29, according to the Ministry of Health.
Ethiopia is not undertaking extensive and compulsory tests, although it has introduced several preventive measures. For that reason, many Ethiopians fear that the number of infected people could rise in the country could exponentially if Ethiopia could manage to test more people for COVID 19.
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