Despite agitation from several quarters calling for the opening of churches and mosques, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said he is not prepared to open his church yet at the risk of putting the lives of his congregants in danger of contracting COVID-19.
Bakare, who insisted that it was not yet time to open places of worship, said he was sorry for the country as some Christian and Muslim clerics were putting pressure on the government to open worship centres.
In a sermon titled, ‘You are free to dream again,’ which he delivered on Saturday and was posted on Youtube, Bakare wondered if the religious leaders pilling pressure on the government to open worship centres were planning to take people to the graveyards.
Bakare said, “I’m so sorry for our country at this juncture; I’m so sorry that we are pressurising the government to open churches and to open mosques; you want calamity upon calamity. The church has not been closed; nobody can close the church.
“Yes, it is true that buildings are closed but the church is marching on. No one can close the church. And government can shut down the buildings; they cannot force us to go back because I’m not going to endanger the lives of our people.”
Comparing the coronavirus pandemic with the biblical story of Noah and the flood, Bakare added, “Noah did not jump out of the ark; he sent the raven first to test the ground. The raven never returned. He sent the duck twice; on the third occasion, it did not return. He knew it was safe to go out but he still stayed there until God said, ‘Noah, come out!’
“He (God) locked him in and He brought him out. Let’s be patient. And they now want to start carrying people to their gravesides and be praying for their families. Let’s stay within until that time when the calamity is over.”