Suzanne Shep­pard

As church­es pre­pare to re­sume pub­lic gath­er­ings with the lift­ing of COVID-19 re­stric­tions, a Chris­t­ian re­search group is call­ing for deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment.

A po­si­tion pa­per com­piled by Apos­tle Ter­rence Hon­ore and Dr An­tho­ny Oliv­er of the Chris­t­ian Think Tank high­lights the need for an im­proved re­la­tion­ship be­tween the state and re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions.

“The re­stric­tions im­posed on the con­gre­gants, chaffed against the sen­si­tiv­i­ties of the wor­ship­pers, who in turn con­tend­ed that their in­di­vid­ual and con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were be­ing tram­pled up­on and even so, with­out di­a­logue.

“Grant­ed that the pri­ma­ry is­sue of health and preser­va­tion of life trumps the con­sid­er­a­tion of gath­er­ing to wor­ship, there must al­so be an ac­knowl­edge­ment of dis­sent among the ranks of the Chris­t­ian faith,” the doc­u­ment states.

“While the health re­stric­tions were tol­er­a­ble, there is the view that the rules vi­o­lat­ed every sa­cred vow re­gard­ing the free­dom of wor­ship in a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety. This is not mere­ly an aca­d­e­m­ic ar­gu­ment but a deeply held spir­i­tu­al con­sid­er­a­tion.”

Not­ing the need for a greater sense of in­volve­ment and cor­po­ra­tion from re­li­gious groups and or­ga­ni­za­tions the group said the “reach and in­flu­ence of the church pos­i­tive­ly af­fects the san­i­ty, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, sta­bil­i­ty and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of the so­ci­ety.”

The Chris­t­ian Think Tank rec­om­mend­ed the fol­low­ing mea­sures to strength­en the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the church and state:

• A re­view of the op­er­a­tions of the Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal Af­fairs, a di­vi­sion in the Prime Min­is­ter’ Of­fice for more mean­ing­ful di­a­logue and as a chan­nel for ex­pres­sions and sup­port to na­tion­al pol­i­cy for­mu­la­tion and im­ple­men­ta­tion of na­tion­al mea­sures.

• In­sti­tu­tion of a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer and Thanks­giv­ing on a date ear­ly in each year.

• A Spe­cial Chapel to be set up in the Red House for re­li­gious groups to of­fer prayers on be­half of the gov­ern­ment and the na­tion on a con­tin­u­ous ros­tered ba­sis.

• Es­tab­lish­ment of a chap­lain­cy pro­gramme at all re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty arms so dai­ly prayers can be of­fered at des­ig­nat­ed chapels, hos­pi­tals and re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions.

• In­tro­duc­tion of a Na­tion­al Con­sul­ta­tion Fo­rum on ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal mat­ters to en­sure align­ment of gov­ern­ments pro­grammes with ac­tiv­i­ties of the church.

• In­tro­duc­tion of a spe­cial an­nu­al grant to en­cour­age the church­es pro­vi­sion of sup­port to less for­tu­nate in so­ci­ety. Gov­ern­ment should sup­port this so­cial net through the re­in­force­ment of the ef­forts of the church­es in the com­mu­ni­ties at large.

The pa­per con­tin­ued: “Ul­ti­mate­ly, the gov­ern­ment can fa­cil­i­tate and en­hance the con­tri­bu­tions of the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty by en­cour­ag­ing di­a­logue and com­mon ap­proach­es to crit­i­cal is­sues.

“There must be an un­der­stand­ing that while or­ga­ni­za­tions may be set in their re­spec­tive re­li­gious per­sua­sions, mat­ters of state re­gard­ing wel­fare and sur­vival of the peo­ple must take pri­or­i­ty al­beit sec­ondary to spir­i­tu­al-re­li­gious con­sid­er­a­tions.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Chris­t­ian Think Tank, ex­e­cu­tion of state-wide mea­sures that criss-cross the lines of faith have been a source of dis­sent and cause of con­flicts in the course of world his­to­ry.

“But con­clu­sive­ly, we see the el­e­ments of this dis­course as be­ing fun­da­men­tal to re­tain­ing our free­dom of wor­ship and the con­tin­u­ance of peace in our land,” the group states.