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| ▲ Seegero Church, a large church in Busan, violated the quarantine rules and held a weekend service again. The second part of Sunday worship service on the 10th. | |
| Ⓒ Worldro Church YouTube |
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Despite concerns about the spread of Corona 19, some large churches in the Busan region held weekend worship services on the 10th. These churches have been ignoring quarantine rules, such as violating administrative orders, saying, “We must face Satan’s schemes.”
Defense Regulations and Declaration of Spiritual War? “Holy Fight”
“Let’s praise the Lord with all our strength”. 10:50 am on the 10th, when the 2nd Sunday service is in full swing. Hymns rang out loud in the church around the world in Gangseo-gu, Busan. More than 1,000 believers who sat 2 meters apart in the chapel sang and prayed together.
In the world, the church defined the enforcement of worship on this day as a’spiritual war’. One elder said, “Now we have proclaimed spiritual warfare and have entered into a holy fight.” He appealed, “God’s people deserve to worship in the temple of the Lord, but we are going through a terrible time where we cannot worship at will. Please have compassion on us and win the spiritual war.”
The senior pastor cried, saying, “This is the way to glory.” Pastor Hyun-bo Son said, “I prayed earnestly while telling God what will happen to the church in the future. I was impressed with’the church is taking the lead in the world’.” . He shed tears in the second half of the sermon, and he repeatedly encouraged worship. The believers also cried at this appearance of Pastor Son. In the world, the church held this face-to-face service twice only this morning.
Pastor Son protested at the weekend worship service held on the 3rd, saying, “The government is taking all measures to destroy the church.” He said, “If we cry out and pray with faith here, we will eventually win,” he said, and insisted on the government’s quarantine guidelines, “a clear Satanic scheme to persecute and exterminate the church using the corona.”
This large church in Busan has already violated administrative orders several times and continued to worship face-to-face and stood at the center of controversy. Last year, the city’s sixth accusations were not bothered. In the new year’s first service, about 1,000 people gathered, and early morning service was held on Saturday the 9th.
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| ▲ On the morning of the 7th at the controversial world church in Gangseo-gu, Busan, controversy over the face-to-face worship service, members are protesting the “non-face-to-face worship” measures by the quarantine authorities. | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
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In step 2.5 of social distancing, religious facilities should hold worship services in a non-face-to-face manner. Only the number of people required to conduct online worship services can be gathered to less than 20 people. It is an inevitable measure to prevent close contact. However, the atmosphere of dissatisfaction is likely to spread to the religious world, with a press conference in support of the church held on the 7th in the name of the Christian Union in 226 cities, counties and districts across the country.
In this atmosphere, the local government in charge of Gangseo-gu, Busan, also came to the worship site to crack down. Kang Seo-gu, who confirmed the church’s non-compliance with the quarantine rules, went into an administrative disposition to suspend the operation of the church around the world on this day.
Myung-hee Kim, Director of Culture and Tourism in Gangseo-gu, Busan <오마이뉴스>“I made a first complaint to the ward office on Thursday, and delivered a warning on Friday. But I still enforced a weekend worship service,” he said. Gangseo-gu decided to respond to the closure of the church facilities if another in-person worship service was held during the suspension of operation.
Some churches even rejected an order to suspend operations. A church in Seo-gu, Busan, held a weekend worship service for 500 people on that day, despite the administrative order of the district office. The Busan Seo-gu Office delivered an official order to suspend operations on the 6th, but the church did not accept it. The church has already been prosecuted seven times, and six of these have been sent to the prosecution for prosecution.
The ward office is considering closing the facility. Earlier, the Seo-gu Office said, “If we ignore the request for cooperation to prevent infectious diseases, we have no choice but to take measures to close the facility.”
On the other hand, Busan still recorded double-digit confirmed cases, with 19 people tested positive on that day. The city of Busan, which is devoted to responding to quarantine, has extended the 2.5 steps of social distancing to the 17th.