Reverend Zoleka Molapisi from the Ethiopian Episcol Church has described the past year as midnight in the lives of many people. She likened the coronavirus pandemic to the sudden darkening of the sun during Jesus’ last moments on the cross.
Molapisi was one of the Speakers at the South African Council of Churches’ (SACC) Virtual Good Friday Service that was broadcast on SABC 2.
She says before Jesus died, there was what seemed like a spiritual midnight, much like the past year for many people.
“Before Jesus shouted out, ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit,’ notice how the Bible tells us that the sun was darkened. It seemed like a spiritual midnight had covered the whole earth. This last year for many people, it has indeed felt like midnight in their lives. Job losses, death of loved ones, funerals have been the order of the day bazalwane.
In many instances, incidences of abuse and violence against children and women has dramatically increased as COVID-19 took its toll. Right now, I come into your home to bring a word of encouragement direct from the Lord. The darker the night, the brighter the dawn of a new day,” says Molapisi.
Pain and isolation
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has likened the pain and isolation suffered by many victims of COVID-19 as the same pain and humiliation that Jesus Christ suffered during his crucifixion.
SACC’s Director of Church and Community Engagement, Reverend Mzwandile Molo, encouraged people not to give up.
“And whatever humiliation God goes through, God refuses to give up on us. We heard him cry out ‘why have you forsaken me?’ And in that moment that of crying out, it’s a reminder to those who cry out as they face their own death through the COVID-19 pandemic, the 52 000 or so people who have lost their lives in this nation and they have lost their lives almost alone.
But we want to remind you as family members to them, that they did not go through this alone because this God has experienced loneliness of death and cried out, ‘why have you forsaken me?’ We have hear him cry out ‘I thirst.’ At that moment, we are reminded of God’s solidarity and all those who struggled with their bodies giving in to death in ICU, in ventilation and all the places where death seems to win,” says Molo.
Church congregants gather in small, controlled numbers at places of worship in Cape Town:
Last year, Christians in South Africa couldn’t gather for the first time ever to observe Good Friday due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Instead all services were held virtually as part of efforts to slow the spread of the virus which was first detected in the country in March 2020.
This year’s gathering was also held under strict COVID-19 safety protocols. While some churches adhered to them and promised to continue doing so during the Easter weekend, others called for the relaxation of the regulations.
A pastor at the Kingdom of God International Ministries Church in Mfuleni near Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Apostle Sineko Nxesi, is among religious leaders who are calling on government to increase the limit on the number of people who are allowed to attend religious gatherings. Nxesi says churches have the ability to enforce strict COVID-19 safety protocols.
“We are still saying open churches on 50% basis, because that’s what we are all about. We are people of order. If you are doing it with schools as they are doing it, if you can do it in restaurants, you can do it in the mines, why not the church. We are most compliant people, most orderly people, we’ve got the man power to perform all those things,” he says.
Archbishop Makgoba urges Africa to develop COVID-19 vaccines
Anglican Archbishop of Southern Africa Thabo Makgoba says it is possible for the pharmaceutical industry in Africa to start developing COVID-19 vaccines instead of importing more. Makgoba delivered the Via Dolorosa Sermon during a Virtual Good Friday Service of the South African Council of Churches.
The virtual service was broadcast to honour frontline healthcare workers who died of COVID-19 since last year.
Makgoba explains, “Let us challenge the pharmaceutical industry in Africa to manufacture vaccines ourselves. I’m sure we can make more drugs ourselves instead of importing them. Let us also challenge vaccine nationalism. You can’t put a flag and hope the virus will not cross borders. Let us challenge what I refer to as vaccine Apartheid, practiced by those who play God and determine who is condemned to suffer and to die on the cross of coronavirus.”
Makgoba also challenged South Africans to speak out against the atrocities in the Tigray province of Ethiopia and in Cabo Delgado in Mozambique.
“Let us renew our resolve that we will speak out and really speak up for the people of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique and for the people of Tigray in Ethiopia. Let us speak out on the issues of the world’s climate, for the challenges in climate are impacting most severely to those who are contributing least to these changes.”
Ramaphosa attends Good Friday service
Earlier on Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded churches for their role in the bid to preserve lives during the pandemic.
He was speaking in his capacity as the ANC President at the Meadowlands Methodist Church in Soweto as part of the ANC’s tribute to the late struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,
Ramaphosa said churches have played an important role in the fight against the pandemic.
More on what Ramaphosa said on Friday in the video below:
