For the third consecutive Sunday, devout Christians across the twin cities and the State were glued to the social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to hear the holy message from the respective preachers in view of the lockdown.
Sunday was celebrated as Palm Sunday to celebrate the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, who rode on a donkey when a large number of people placed palm branches on the road to give him a rousing welcome.
Almost all the mainline Catholic, Protestant and other independent Churches beamed the Sunday mass live. The State government, through an order on March 18, had issued orders to temples, mosques and churches to curtail movement of people in view of COVID-19.
Accordingly, all churches first suspended their Sunday mass and other religious activities and took recourse to online platform to reach out to the congregation. In view of the Janata Curfew on March 22, no service was conducted, and March 29 too, all churches beamed their service live.
This Sunday, too, the same practice was followed. At the historic Medak Cathedral, the seat of Church of South India, Diocese of Medak, a group of clergy conducted the Palm Sunday service duly maintaining social distance. In the twin cities, too, St Mary’s Cathedral at Secunderabad had the Reverend delivering the message without the congregation.
Representatives of the mainline churches said that the Good Friday service on April 10 and Easter Sunrise service would also be beamed live in view of the lockdown.
