The General 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 coronavirus.
Pastor Bakare asserted that it was not yet time to open places of worship, said he was sorry for the country as some Christians and Muslims clerics are on the verge of putting the lives of congregants in danger by insisting for the restart of church services.
In a sermon he delivered on Saturday which was titled “You are free to dream again” Pastor 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.”
While comparing the Covid-19 pandemic to biblical story of Noah and the flood, Pastor Bakare further stated;
“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.
Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city and one where most of the nation’s mega-churches have their headquartered, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, Pastor Bakare has always been in support of the Government as on 10th of May, 2020 the CGCC announced it’s offering the LASG parts of their Church facilities at Akilo Road, Ogba, to be used as an isolation center for Covid-19 cases and also to ensure the best utilization of this space.
(C) Control TV 2020.
