For the first time since the lockdown was implemented churches were allowed to congregate from June 7.

The Rehobot Gemeente AGS Lydenburg was one of the few churches that opened their doors to worshippers. Even though most churches preferred to continue doing online and virtual church sessions, this local church announced it has had its first service.

In a statement it said: “Rehobot Assembly was called and is positioned to be a gateway into our community and region, therefore we as the church have gone through a great deal of preparation to ensure that we are adhering to all legal requirements in our effort to reopen our Sunday services”.

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Past Dries Strydom said it was long overdue and the congregation seemed happy to be at church.

“It was strange because we could not sing and also we could not socialise. As strange as it was we had a good preach. The law says that we should not sing and after church, we should immediately go home,” he said.

Strydom said they played background music and at 09:00 the service started.

He also added that they made sure that they followed all the procedures that are expected by law.

“We had a provisional person that went to the church and sanitised it. We will do this every Friday so that on Sunday the church will be ready. Before people entered the church they filled in a register, they were screened and sanitised.

Using chairs instead of benches in our church made it easy for us to practice social distancing. During the service, everyone had to sit at least 1,5 metres away from each other.

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The people were also not allowed to move the chair and when exiting and entering the building we walked in rows, making sure that the required distance is in place,” he explained.

When asked about how they managed to select the 50 people who attended the service, he said they used a register online and first-come first-serve technique.

“People responded online saying they will attend,” he said. Strydom said they will have a service on Sunday.