The Living Faith Church (Winners’ Chapel) has cancelled its 2020/2021 Crossover Service earlier scheduled for December 31, 2020 to January 1, 2021.
Reports indicate that the decision to have a rethink over the hosting of the service, may not be unconnected to speculations that some participants at its recent annual Shiloh programme may have contracted COVID-19, the dreaded pandemic that has infected more than 80 millions of people across the world and claimed the lives of some 1.7 million.
The Church’s Crossover Night/Vigil Service usually lasted from around 10 pm on every 31st December to about 4 a.m. of the first day of the New Year.
Pastors of Living Faith churches across the country announced to their various congregations on Sunday about the new development.
Instead of the Crossover Service, there will be a mix of physical and virtual services.
The physical service will start around 5 p.m on Thursday and last for about two hours while the virtual service, which will be streamed live from Faith Tabernacle, Ota, in Ogun State, will commence at 7 a.m on Friday, January 1, 2021.
Though no reason was given for the cancellation, it was learnt that the Church may have chosen to defer to the 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. national curfew imposed by the President Task Force on COVID-19 to control the spread of the virus.
But the General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo had consistently opposed lockdown measures imposed by government to control the spread of COVID-19.
Oyedepo had during the last Shiloh programme of the church indicated that he has zero regards for COVID-19, describing it as ‘a lie from the pit of hell.’
According to him, the so-called symptoms of COVID-19 were everyday symptoms.
He said, “Somebody has a temperature and then (they say) he has COVID-19. Everybody here has a temperature. You can’t be in the tropics and not have a temperature.
He also compared COVID-19 to a graven image that is only real for those who believe it exists.
“This graven image, I refuse to bow to it. Is COVID-19 real? Yes and no. Those who believe in it, it’s real to them, those who don’t believe in it, it’s not real,” he said.
