The church’s secretary Dr Wouter van Wyk says the pandemic has accelerated the church’s consolidation process, something which may ultimately lead to a loss of jobs.

“Therefore, I hope that it will not be a common occurrence that ministers are laid off by their congregations but we are in the position to rather consolidate congregations.

“I don’t see force large scale retrenchments and I hope that in most cases that by pulling resources we will limit the number of people who actually lose their employment to the bare minimum.”

The strict lockdown regulations imposed by the government in March has also had a negative impact on institutions of faith.

Under level 5 and level 4 of the lockdown churches were not allowed to open their doors.

This changed as the governments eased the lockdown restrictions under level 3, with a maximum of 50 people allowed to gather at a place of worship.

Wouter says the talks to consolidate the church have been ongoing since September 2019. 

Jacaranda FM