Katiko leading the Busoga diocesan Bishop, the Rev. Paul Naimanhye after prayers at the Cathedral during the last church service on March 15, 2020 before the lockdown. Photo by Jackie Nambogga

RELIGION

Busoga diocese has increased the number of services, from three to four ahead of the resumption of holding prayers, in churches starting Sunday (September 27, 2020).

According to the Rev. Mathias Katiko, the Vicar of Christ's Cathedral Bugembe, the main seat of the diocese located in Bugembe division, Jinja City, this will enable the diocese to match with the directive issued by President Yoweri Museveni, while lifting the lockdown regarding gatherings.

Unlike the previous services which have been taking place for two hours, under the new arrangement, Katiko said the services were cut by 30 minutes.

The services have been schedules as follows: 7:00AM -8:00AM, 8:30AM-9:30AM, 10:00AM-11:00AM and 11:30AM-12:30PM.

He said part of the 30 minutes would be used for fumigating the entire church and pews immediately after every service, washing, testing body temperatures before followers being ushered inside.

Katiko said they had procured at least four temperature guns and hand washing materials that would be stationed at all four entry points into the facility.

He said they had also trained their workers on how to use the temperature guns.

The Busoga bishop, the Rt Rev. Paul Samson Naimanhye Katiko, also said they held a sensitisation meeting with their 40 ushers on the COVID-19 guidelines related to gatherings.

However, Katiko regretted the limiting of followers to only 70, saying this would have been issued depending on the size of worshiping centres.

For instance the Cathedral has a sitting capacity of 1,080 people with 181 pews.

Each pew, according to Katiko, can be occupied by six people but under the new guidelines they reduced to two.

"You may find some worship centres which are smaller than others also allowing 70 people, when they don't have enough space yet others which are bigger are also having the same number," he said.

Katiko said the Cathedral was intending to bring this to the attention of the COVID-19 taskforce for consideration of increasing the number of church goers, to at least 250 although it can cater for 362 people without necessarily contravening the guidelines.

He thanked Museveni for considering worship centres and learning institutions to resume.

"The pandemic has claimed lives and left others bedridden, but we thank God that the said categories were also considered to resume following the guidelines," he said.