(Updates with orders to close churches in Kenya)
By Thomas Mukoya, Cooper Inveen and Angela Ukomadu
NAIROBI/FREETOWN/LAGOS, March 22 (Reuters) - Hand sanitiser
replaced holy water at Nairobi's Holy Family Basilica Catholic
Church, and attendance was far lower than usual, but Sunday Mass
went ahead.
"God's intention is that we worship him in the church,"
preached Father David Kamumue to about 300 people, instead of
his usual congregation of some 5,000.
"Let us pray. May God keep us safe."
In Kenya, where there have been seven confirmed cases of
coronavirus, the government has imposed restrictions including
closing schools and has urged people to practice social
distancing as it tries to prevent the disease from spreading.
Later on Sunday, Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced at a
news conference that all religious gatherings were banned
indefinitely. That tightened up a previous request by
authorities for churches to limit crowds as much as possible.
Globally, measures by authorities have included closing or
limiting worship, disrupting Sunday services just before Easter.
So far the confirmed incidence of the disease in Africa has
been relatively small - almost 1,200 cases and more than 30
deaths, compared with a worldwide total that has reached more
than 305,000 cases, with more than 13,000 deaths.
But part of Africa's battle to stop the virus from taking
hold could be fought in its churches. It has the highest number
of Christians of any continent, 631 million people as of 2018,
or 45% of the continent's population, according to the Center
for the Study of Global Christianity.
As worshippers trickled into services across the continent
on Sunday morning, temperatures were taken, hands were sanitised
and people sat apart.
In some places, measures were more extreme.
In Sierra Leone, which has included religious services in a
list of banned gatherings, churches in the capital Freetown
stood empty on Sunday. Some parishes found ways to broadcast
their services so people could worship from home.
AN EMPTY CATHEDRAL
Behind the locked doors of Sacred Heart Cathedral in
downtown Freetown, the country's oldest Catholic church, a
priest and his deputy delivered a sermon to an empty room.
A camera broadcast the sermon live over Facebook, while a
microphone relayed the audio to Radio Maria — a church sponsored
station broadcasting across the city.
"People need to hear the word of God now more than ever,"
said Father John Peter Bebeley who manages the radio station.
"If we can play our part in keeping this virus at bay while also
providing consolation to people in these trying times, we have
every responsibility to do that."
Similar scenes have played out across the continent.
Churches in Ghana, South Africa, Liberia and other countries
are moving to radio, television and the internet.
"If I go out there and I am infected, I won't have the
opportunity to worship God next," said Chika Paul-Oboh, a
finance manager in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos.
"If I can stay alive to worship God, any medium is fine."
Some worshippers disagreed with that stance.
"Nothing can stop me from not being in church," said Anna
Ohere, a salon manager, who attends and works at another church
in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
"I must be in church to serve my God, I can't be at home
because of any one disease."
THOUSANDS AT ABUJA CHURCH
On Sunday, thousands of people in Abuja flocked to the
100,000-capacity Dunamis Glory Dome, a squat, sprawling
monolith.
The service, which was live-streamed on YouTube, was in open
defiance of a government ban on gatherings of 50 people or more.
People stood side by side for hours, singing hymns and
listening to the pastor, Paul Enenche, sermonise on the dangers
of plagues. He acknowledged the ban on gatherings and the
effects of coronavirus on Christianity everywhere.
"In most parts of the world churches are closed completely,
but that devil is a liar," Enenche said. "Church is our only
hope. God is our only hope."
However, the church will move towards home services for
small groups and online worship, he said.
He also announced a possible solution to skirt the ban on
large gatherings: erecting canopies that would each hold 50
people.