Rev Dr Tie King Tai
SIBU: President of Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference (SCAC) Rev Dr Tie King Tai says not all Methodist churches in Sarawak’s urban areas will reopen for Sunday services in August as planned.
He said this was due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Kuching, causing many churches to apply not to reopen for services until September.
“All churches here should open in August but due to the (Covid-19) situation in Kuching, many churches have applied not to open until September.
“However, the majority of churches in town (Sibu) will still open in August, starting this Sunday,” he said.
He added that many churches in the suburbs had already started Sunday services in July as they had no or weak Internet connection to go into online streaming services.
Rev Tie said churches that wanted to delay the commencement of services would have to inform the SCAC headquarters.
On another note, he said the church standard operating procedures (SOP) had already been submitted to Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) along with a memo for the reopening. He said the number of congregation would still be limited to 250 or one third capacity depending on the size of the church.
“However, most churches are learning online services now and also live streaming.
“Live streaming is vital for children under 12 years old, the elderly and people with medical history who cannot attend services in church,” he said.