Following concerns over about the possible hygiene implications of handling cash in a COVID-19 situation, the Seventh Day Adventist church in Rwanda has embarked in digitising the collection of offerings in a bid to minimize a possible spread of COVID-19, APA learnt Monday from the officials from the church.
From now on Members of the church with smartphones will be able to download the Mo-Pay App and follow prompts to withdraw money from their bank accounts or Mobile Money, and immediately make a donation or pay their tenth to the church with no hassle, the Church said.
Rwandan health officials said that the potential for coins and banknotes to house bacteria has been acknowledged rapidly due to the unfolding pandemic and serious risks associated with the COVID disease.
Pastor Hesron Byilingiro, head of the Seventh Day Adventist church in RwandaChurch in Rwanda, said that the world and the country in particular are moving fast towards digitizing services and using technology to do things differently and the church should not be the one to be left behind.
“In Rwanda we have seen that technology is increasingly becoming the way of doing things. There is no law that says that the church should remain conservative and not adopt the use of technology in what we do. I have never seen anywhere in the Bible where it is said that we should not make progress in terms of technology,” he said.
According to him, there is a clear need for Adventist parishes to introduce contactless facilities and make this available.
In a related development, Rwanda has been experiencing in recent weeks a surge in recoveries and a reduction in the number of active cases of Covid-19.
The country’s active cases have been plummeting for the last couple of days from over 1600 on October 6 to 169 on October 17, according to the ministry of Health.
CU/abj/APA