BAHAMAS Christian Council President Bishop Delton Fernander says he's eager to meet with the new Davis administration with a view to relaxing certain COVID-19 measures on churches.

For a long time, the council has felt certain restrictions made no sense, especially considering political events and more recently swearing-in ceremonies have been held with only minimal constraints.

As a result, the BCC president said many church groups now ignored certain restrictions.

“No,” Bishop Fernander said when asked yesterday whether the restrictions had hindered the work of the church. “The church has been ignoring it to be honest with you, especially as we got close to (the) election because there was that feeling that no one was going to enforce the rules.”

He did not specify which restrictions churches had ignored.

Bishop Fernander continued: “It simply was that it didn’t make sense to us. Just before (the) election we had a conversation with the (former) Prime Minister (Dr Hubert Minnis) with the agreement that some of the stuff would be relaxed, but the order was never changed and so we operated like we had the agreement.”

In July, churches in New Providence and Grand Bahama were limited to a one hour worship service daily with a maximum capacity of 33 percent. It was also stated in July that funeral or cremation services would not be allowed but graveside services are permitted with a maximum of 30 people, excluding the officiant and funeral workers. No funeral repasts are permitted.

While the BCC waits to state its case to government officials, Bishop Fernander said there were a number of things the group hoped to address.

“As we begin to request negotiation with the state, a number of things the council would be interested in communicating about: one is the restrictions for funerals.

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