Deyalsingh: 'Govt knows religion is important'

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said he recognised that religion is very important and that the Prime Minister will determine what parts of the economy and society will reopen on October 11.

Under The Public Health 2019 Novel Coronavirus regulations, religious services were restricted to no more than ten people in attendance in March, but were allowed to resume for Corpus Christi, although limited to an hour. However, places of worship were again closed during TT's second covid19 wave.

During the Ministry of Health covid19 press conference on Saturday, Deyalsingh said, “Let me say he (PM Dr Rowley) has guided this country brilliantly in making the decisions that have to be made to save lives and livelihood.”

However, president of the TT Council of Evangelical Churches, Rev Dr Desmond Austin is arguing that the church should be considered essential and therefore reopened during the covid19 pandemic because members of the public rely on it in their everyday lives.

In a press release, he said the church complied with the health regulations set out by the government. However, those in authority did not seem to understand the integrity and trust God has placed in the hands of churches, and so were not supporting the churches.

Instead, during the lockdown earlier this year the church was labelled as non-essential, and later placed under the umbrella of entertainment.

He therefore explained, “The church is the only entity that does not exist solely for its members. Compared to other organizations, it is the entity that has the most volunteers actively involved in serving communities around the nation. The church has been instructed by Jesus to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of heaven. This includes among many other acts of service, meeting the needs of the poor, visiting orphans and widows, praying for the government, praying and counselling hurting families, and disciplining nations.”

Austin said he hoped to find ways that the church could collaborate with the government and add value to what it was doing, similar to the government asking religious organisations to distribute hampers to those in need.

He said the distribution was essential and the government would not have given the job to a non-essential service.

“Without this type of synergy the depressed, the suicidal, the abused, and the addicted, just to mention a few in this sordid catalogue, will continue to show up at the closed doors of our churches only to leave with more pain. Who will account for this conundrum?”

He added that a key aspect of Christian life was fellowship and that could not be recreated through online services, to which members were becoming “indifferent and nonchalant.” Also, churches were finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations, including paying pastors.

He also noted that the preamble of the country’s constitution stated that TT was “founded upon the principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God,” yet, the source of those principles, the church, was not being acknowledged.

He said a nation’s strength came from the moral choices of its citizens and for any nation to stand under pressure, a strong moral foundation was necessary. And the church was essential to the awareness of moral standards.