The COVID-19 Pandemic, There Is No Kissing The Cross During The Good Friday Commemoration

Public Relations of the Jakarta Cathedral Church, Susiana Suwandie (Photo: Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Public Relations of the Jakarta Cathedral Church, Susiana Suwandie, said that the implementation of the tri holy day commemoration service is slightly different amid the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them is the procession of kissing the cross when the Good Friday service is abolished.

The procession of kissing the cross is a form of respect by Catholics. Usually, one by one the people would come forward and kiss the cross that had been prepared.

"During this pandemic, the cross is honored from each place (congregation seat, red). Officers only lift the cross in the front area and all people respect from their respective places," Susiana told reporters at the Jakarta Cathedral Church, Friday, April 2. .

In addition, the Jakarta Cathedral Church has also cut the worship time. "During this pandemic, it was shortened but did not reduce the meaning and devotion. For example, the usual 90 minutes of worship can be shorter, which is 60 minutes," he said.

Not only for Good Friday services, later on, the process of worship on Easter night or Saturday Vigil will also be reduced. This is also caused by a pandemic.

"As usual, it is quite long (the procession, red) on the Saturday night of the Vigil. So, (tomorrow, red) some of the readings which are quite a series of seven are reduced to three, for example," he said.

The Jakarta Cathedral Church only provides 309 seats for the congregation or 20 percent of the church capacity. This was done in order to follow the rules for preventing transmission of COVID-19.

Congregations must also register themselves first on the website of the Jakarta Archdiocese. As for the series of Good Friday worship events today, two sessions will be held, namely 15.00 WIB and 18.00 WIB.

VOI's monitoring at the location at 15.45 WIB the atmosphere was conducive even though the joint military apparatus from the Indonesian National Police were still on guard in the area around the Jakarta Cathedral Church. Currently, religious activities are also taking place.