The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Cape Coast Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, has urged Christians to become better Christians post Coronavirus.
The Archbishop made this call on Citi TV‘s Point of View with Bernard Avle on Monday, April 13, 2020.
“I believe that thanks to the coronavirus and its restrictions, if we come to a deeper understanding of worshipping in spirit and in truth [as prescribed by the Bible], thereafter, we should be better Christians. We should be better human beings learning to love, learning to share, learning to forgive, learning to be honest, learning to be truthful, learning to be co-responsible. I believe this Coronavirus, in the long run, will turn into a greater blessing for you and for me,” he said.
The Archbishop further urged families to take time to bond together during the lockdown as Jesus Christ did with His disciples.
“For once, we are compelled to live together as a family. So let us make it home not a house. Let us make it a family so that we can interact. This is the time I believe the meal at home can become the last supper and meal of lamp…Let the family now become a domestic church where parents and their children pray together, where parents and their children sit at a table and eat together, where parents and their children serve one another as Jesus served them, where parents and their children go into the scriptures and share the word together, where parents and their children learn to forgive one another because Jesus forgave us.”
Across the globe, schools have been forced to close down while physical religious and secular gatherings have been banned as part of efforts to stop the spread.
A major event on the Christian calendar, Easter, has for the first time been marked without Christians congregating for services in Church as a result of the virus.
Ban on public gatherings
In Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo extended the initial one-month ban on public gatherings including religious activities and funerals by an additional two weeks in a bid to curb the further spread of COVID-19 which has infected over a million people worldwide.
The extension came into full force after he signed the Executive Instrument to give effect to the new measure.
He also announced a partial lockdown of the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas.
Ghana’s confirmed cases of COVID-19
Ghana has 566 cases of COVID-19 with eight deaths and four recoveries.
So far ten out of 16 regions have recorded COVID-19 cases.