Watoto Church has officially announced plans of re-opening all its branches in Uganda for public worship after being closed for months due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Pastor Julius Rwotlonyo, the associate team leader at Watoto Church said Tuesday in-person gatherings will resume 4 April, 2021, which will also be a day of commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“We are getting ready to start having in-person gatherings at our campuses,” he said.
“We look forward to seeing resurrection, yes, of our Savior, but also resurrection of our gatherings at our compasses,” he added.
Rwotlonyo explained that while all-Church and teens services will be commencing on the said date, children’s church services will not be conducted just yet.
“We will only be having services for adults and teenagers. We will not be able to (conduct) children’s services unfortunately, and that breaks our hearts, but the time will come when we will be able to have our children.
Watoto’s main church is dubbed Watoto Church Downtown and has expanded over the years across the city with Watoto Church Kisaasi, Bweyogerere, Lubowa, Kyengera, Kansanga, Bugolobi and Entebbe.
The Church also expanded across Uganda with Watoto Church Bbira in Wakiso District, Watoto Church Suubi in Mpigi District, Watoto Church Gulu and Watoto Church Laminadera in Gulu District.
To observe the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) issued by the Ministry of Health and government of Uganda, Pastor Rwotlonyo said the Church will only have a restricted number of believers attend each prayer service.
“In-order to manage expectations, we are going to have to make reservations for seats in the services.” “I know that is a little bit inconveniencing, but that is what we have to do,” he continued. “We are doing this because we care about your safety.”
Many churches across the country, closed for physical worship and resorted to online worship, when the government imposed a countrywide lockdown on 20 March 2020 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Later, on 21 Sept. 2020, the president allowed places of worship to reopen as long as they observed the government’s COVID-19 guidelines, including that worshipers wear face masks, sanitize and sit at a distance from one another during the service.
Houses of worship were allowed only up to 200 people. Sunday school and night prayers were temporarily banned.
