A fast rising consultancy on the legal scene, Crownel Co. Ltd has organized an inaugural international webinar on religious freedoms during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Organisation took to its social media accounts last week and released a flyer indicating a pool of panelists who are lawyers from not only across Africa, but also the United Kingdom and USA.
As we all may know, the world has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated from Wuhan, China and eventually spread at a full blown scale. In a bid to curtail further spread of the virus that claimed many lives, different governments undertook different measures – the most common being general lockdown and banning of any public gatherings – including religious or faith based gatherings.
However, as 2020 progressed, the pandemic digressed in most countries while others learned to live with it amidst implementation of some health precautions.
In all this, little, if any, divine attention was sought by the powers that be. Moreover, as other public places were considered for reopening, places of worship world over remained closed for one reason or another pending consultations.
This sparked a number of legal suits petitioning for the reopening of specific places of worship such as the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church in Brazil, and the Grace Community Church in California, USA being the most recent petitioners.
The situation has not been any different in Uganda. Having allowed public places such as malls, arcades and public transport to reopen given that they adhere to certain Standard Operating Procedures, the President deferred the reopening of places of worship pending consultation with the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda.
However, with a large cross section of Ugandans believing that the measures suggested for reopening are stringent, a lot of debate has been sparked off.
It is for this very reason that Crownel Co. Ltd thought it necessary to host an international webinar under the theme, “COVID-19 Church guidelines: A global attempt to curtail the Gospel.
According to the CEO, Ms. Evelyne Naikoba, “The global suspension of religious gatherings and discriminate treatment particularly towards places of worship following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, has awakened many to the realization that this closure was never solely because of the Corona disease, but rather served as a convenient vehicle to usher in a wave of increased and systematic global religious persecution.
Although churches and other places of worship have largely been treated as a thing of non-essential value and portrayed, by some religious leaders, to be another one of the many sectors at the mercy of State leaders, it is our firm belief that the Freedom of Religion and conscience are inalienable -God given- and cannot be arbitrarily rescinded. It would therefore be an overreach by the State to dictate how people should worship outside the accepted belief system of a particular Faith.”
Crownel Co. Ltd first rose to the global scene when it attracted a nomination in the much-coveted African Legal Awards, five months into its operations in 2019. One thing is for sure – they are meticulous about whatever it is they are doing. We can only wish them a very fruitful discussion in their upcoming webinar, and hope that we also get some solutions to the issues we are currently facing in the religious space.
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