Bangladesh Churches Call to Prayer during the Coronavirus Outbreak
23 March 2020
Honourable all,
With sincere Christian greetings may we request you to read the following and pray for us:
People of different sects and religions are praying in Bangladesh from home, Mosques, Temple and Churches for overcoming the situation of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) for all the affected people near and far, despite fears it posed a risk of spreading the new Corona-virus. Most of the people are at home in this weekend.
Already the high official of the administration, religious leaders, different social and cultural chiefs of the country have given useful directives how to protect the pandemic COVID-19. Most of the directives are to guide the citizen to stay at homes if possible and maintain personal hygiene for protection and security.
So far 24 people in the country have tested positive and two have been killed, although many experts are sceptical over the official figures. Especially educational institutes, sports, cultural and religious institutes, some NGOs, INGOs and private institutes meanwhile have been declared to be closed to discourage public gathering.
The United Forum of Churches, Bangladesh (UFCB) consisting of three major Christian organisations- Catholic Bishops' Conference Bangladesh (CBCB), National Church Fellowship Bangladesh (NCFB) and National Council of Churches in Bangladesh (NCCB) have also declared special 24 hours prayer schedule worldwide during the day on 26th March 2020 to have mercy to the Almighty God in this global crisis situation created for Corona at least in 184 countries out of 195 countries in the world.
The three span prayer schedule for across the country as follows- The NCCB: 1.00 am to 8.00 am The NCFB: 8.00 am to 4.00 pm and the CBCB: 4.00 pm to 12.00 midnight on 26th March 2020. The prayer includes the 50 years of our independence too.
The Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh Rt. Rev. Samuel S. Mankhin has declared all sorts of physical offices closed during 20th March to 31 March 2020 and has instructed the staff to work from their residence using technology.
Apart from prayer and our own personal safety measure being a church we should go for actions for the vulnerable people with at least a package of personal hygienic kits, soaps, masks for preventive measure in the poor area who cannot buy their own and volunteers’ safety jackets as well though we do not have our financial capacity. Please pray for us so that we can survive together.
Best Regards
Prodip Chand Mondal, The Church of Bangladesh