Coronavirus spurs Singapore and Hong Kong Christians to see crisis as test of faith and unity

Infection clusters in churches and efforts to limit mingling pose a spiritual challenge to church leaders and congregants alike

Community members are staying united through online forums and by drawing strength from their beliefs

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Singapore’s Christian community has rallied around a message of unity, urging Christians to pray at noon every day for a dissipation of the outbreak. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:30am, 23 Feb 2020Updated: 2:54pm, 25 Feb 2020

As the novel coronavirus spreads in Asia, health authorities zeroing in on community infections have found a surprising commonality – many of the cases are springing from Christian churches.

In Singapore, a third of the 89 reported coronavirus infections are linked to two churches; in South Korea, more than 200 of the 556 cases are linked to one church. No infection clusters in Hong Kong churches have been identified.

Globally, Covid-19 has now spread to 25 countries, with more than 78,000 infections and 2,300 deaths worldwide.

The situation has left church leaders like Ian Toh pondering: What is the narrative of God in everything that has been happening?

Toh, who leads the 200-strong congregation of 3:16 Church in Singapore’s central commercial district, which has not reported any infections, said there was a sense that the Christian community had been in the same situation before – with the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars, in 2003 and the H1N1 swine flu virus in 2009 – but had worked to overcome it.

“During Sars, a few Christians were infected and that motivated the church to rally together in prayers and good works,” said Toh.