South Sudanese Diocese Resumes Public Worship, to Close Should COVID-19 Cases Increase

“For more than four months we have not been praying like this and there was a deep spiritual hunger, people are spiritually hungry for community prayer, Sunday services, the sacraments and we as the shepherds have the responsibility to feed you,” the 77-year-old Bishop said.

Reference the resumption of public worship in his Diocese, Bishop Tombe said, “At least there is some relaxation in Yei. And because we are disciplined enough to follow the measures that have been put in place by health officials, we have been able to come and gather for prayers.”

He expressed gratitude to the task forces of both the government and religious leaders who had cleared places of worship for reopening, saying that people could no longer go without prayers in the Diocese.

The Local Ordinary of Yei Diocese further thanked the country’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) leadership based in Yei township for keeping the citizens educated on the matters of COVID-19 since the beginning of the outbreak.

Making comparisons to the historical hard times he went through with his flock, Bishop Tombe said, “During the (South Sudanese) war for our independence, I always used to say when the war intensifies, let us intensify our prayers.”

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“As COVID-19 is intensifying around the whole world we must intensify our prayers to God to keep this virus away from the world and free the world from such great suffering,” he said.