WCC NEWS: WCC urges everyone to pray at home

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom urged people and churches to give highest priority to “doing whatever we can do to protect life” and ”ask churches not to have public services tomorrow as this can become hubs of transmission of the virus” and to follow strictly the rules and guidelines from authorities based on WHO guidelines.

Tveit and Abuom ask the fellowship to reconsider their way of working. “We must also be particularly aware that exactly what we normally do, in community, is what we should not do now if we want to protect life. We value togetherness in worship and Christian fellowship. But in this time of crisis, and out of love for each other and the neighbor, we should not gather in great numbers together, if at all, nor touch or embrace each other.”

They added: “This is a time to touch each other’s hearts, by what we say, what we share, what we do – and what we do not do – to protect the life God loves so much. In that love, we must adapt our modes of worship and fellowship to the needs of this time of the pandemic, in order to avoid the risk of becoming sources of transmission rather than means of grace.”

Tveit and Abuom invites the fellowship to make the Sunday as a day for prayers for the most vulnerable people  as refugees, elderly and people affected by COVID19, to pray for the entire fellowship, and one human family worldwide.

Tveit and Abuom “commend to all of you the advice and practical recommendations offered by intergovernmental and governmental health authorities to help protect the vulnerable in our communities and others.”

For more information: www.oikoumene.org/corona

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

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