The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on religious practices of churches in Nigeria

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on religious practices of churches in Nigeria
 
Creator Chukwuma, Onyekachi G.
 
Subject — implication; COVID-19; religious practices; church in Nigeria; church practices
Description Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the churches in Nigeria contended with Bokoharam insurgency which mainly affected the churches in Northern Nigeria. However, COVID-19 affected various churches in all the nooks and crannies of the country. It brought about obvious changes in numerous practices of churches in Nigeria. Long-standing traditions of churches such as solemnisation of Holy Matrimony, Holy Communion, baptism, prayer and sharing of peace (This practice is commonly observed by the orthodox churches and entails shaking one another’s hands in the course of a communion service) have been modified or suspended. Whilst this article appreciates the efforts of the federal and state governments, it investigates the implications of COVID-19 outbreak on traditional religious practices of churches in Nigeria. It also examines the responses of churches towards controlling the pandemic. The phenomenological method is used to analyse the data collected from both primary (semi-structured interview) and secondary sources (journals and internet materials). Findings from this work indicate that COVID-19 outbreak is a challenge to the purpose of the institution ‘church’.Contribution: The article investigated and examined the changes which churches made in their doctrine and liturgy with respect to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria. It discovered that many traditions of the church have been modified or suspended as a way of curtailing the spread of the virus.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-06-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v77i4.6377
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 77, No 4 (2021); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6377/18054 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6377/18055 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6377/18056 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6377/18057
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Onyekachi G. Chukwuma https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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