Covid-19: Anglican diocese in Singapore suspends all church services until April 3

SINGAPORE — All regular worship services and gatherings in Singapore's Anglican churches will be suspended with immediate effect until April 3 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was done as a "contribution towards the concerted national effort to 'flatten the coronavirus curve'", said the Anglican Diocese of Singapore in a statement on Thursday (March 19).

Bishop Rennis Ponniah, head of the Anglican Church in Singapore, said in a letter to Anglican leaders that the suspension would “intentionally create a two-week break in church gatherings”.

The diocese added that online weekend services and pastoral care for the elderly and vulnerable would be available and that services would resume on the weekend of April 4 and 5.

The suspension comes after St Andrew's Cathedral, the oldest Anglican site of worship in Singapore, said on Wednesday that it would be closed from March 18 to April 3 after a member of its church was confirmed to be infected with the virus.

The man had returned from a work trip to Britain on March 14 and attended a 9am service on March 15. He had passed the church’s precautionary screening measures and temperature checks with no symptoms of illness.

Screening teams had cleared and admitted 324 people into the 9am service on March 15, held at the cathedral's 860-seat underground sanctuary.

This was because of social distancing measures aimed at spreading out seating in the pews, limiting the size of the congregation, the cathedral said in a letter to church members.

The cathedral’s affected premises will be "professionally disinfected” during the closure, the letter added.

The Anglican diocese has 27 parishes in Singapore, with an average weekly attendance of around 21,000.

The Roman Catholic Church in Singapore announced previously that the suspension of its Masses would continue until the Covid-19 situation is “much improved and more stabilised”.