A Pastor from the Incredible Happenings Ministry Church of Prophet Paseka Motsoeneng, popularly known as Prophet Mboro, checks the temperature at the entrance of the church in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, on June 07, 2020. - Rigid distancing, hand sanitising and record keeping was enforced today at the church, where only 50 worshippers have been admitted in observance to South Africa lockdown level 3 regulations. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
The pandemic has not only shifted the perceptions of the role of churches in society but also how they interact with congregants.
Because of the lockdowns, some local churches lost congregants to established online international outfits, most were unable to continue broadcasting services and many battled financially because people were no longer attending services in person.
Church leaders say it is clear that technology will continue to play an important role.
After a year of online services, coffee in hand and a couch for a pew, churches across South Africa say that their flocks are gradually finding their way back to attending services.
Reverend Mzwandile Molo, director for church liaison and community empowerment for the South African Council of Churches (SACC), says general church attendance has “improved significantly” but stressed that we are still living with Covid-19.
Although the SACC does not keep records on the number of churches opening and closing — that information is kept by its member churches — the council has observed difficulties brought on by the pandemic that might influence churches’ survival in the post-Covid era.
Molo points out that many churches may not be able to sustain the technological costs needed to broadcast services.
“In trying to bring church to the people, we’ve realised exactly how big the digital divide is in our country. We’ve seen the clear disparity between the urban/peri-urban and the rural divide in our country,” says Molo.
He adds: “The churches are facing serious financial challenges that make it difficult for them to sustain their life, settling accounts with local municipalities, paying back loans to the banks, maintaining livelihoods of those who work full time in the church.”
Despite earning less, religious institutions’ social responsibility increased as Covid-19 took its toll on livelihoods. Molo puts it this way: “The most obvious [problem] in our view is the destructive effect of poverty, inequality and joblessness in society. The pandemic has also emphasised the issue of gender-based violence both within the church and in society at large.”
For the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa, its general secretary, Moss Nthla, notes that among difficulties, churches could also identify opportunities “to really care and show the love of God to their congregants who may be facing death, hunger and sickness”.
“In some cases, congregants discovered more glamorous and well-organised churches from overseas online. So they stayed with their online experience of church even after they were allowed to meet [in person]”, Nthla says.
Pastor Tony Haripersadh, of the Full Gospel Church in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, says their church and its role has not changed, except that efforts to reach people in need have intensified.
As the various lockdowns were lifted attendance has “increased steadily” over the past six months while “some [people] had become complacent [and] others were still being cautious because of Covid”, says Haripersadh.
In Graaff-Reinet,the town’s Reformed Church has welcomed back congregants.
“There were church services during the recent lockdown where the services had the most attendance ever. Also now, after the lockdown we have quite a few services with more members attending than before,” says Reverend Marnix Boersema.
“The reasons for this might be because our congregation remained predominantly ‘open’ during the lockdown period and did not stop worship services.”
When they had to suspend services for a brief period, members gathered in smaller groups to attend the services online, says Boersema.
But as members return to their respective spiritual homes, many churches face problems that might have originated before Covid-19 and were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Some churches are showing a decline in attendance while numbers at others have increased since the lockdowns eased and the state of national disaster was lifted. “It is a mixed bag”, notes Nthla.
Boersema says the role of their church has not changed since the start of the pandemic. What did change is how many congregants’ eyes opened to the value and fundamental function of the church in society.
“Maybe we thought of the church for too long as an accessory for some old-fashioned people. Covid has once again shown us that the Church of Christ is the light to this world and the salt of the Earth. The church must not let its light go out.
“The church is fundamental.”
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