4 June 2002
Pastors and priests yesterday expressed concern that many Christians chose to stay at home and watch World Cup football matches on television instead of going to church on Sunday.
Provost Philip Obwogi of the Anglican Church of Kenya's Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Nakuru town said about 950 Christians usually attend the main English service at the Cathedral but only 600 turned up on Sunday because of the World Cup.
The Rev Obwogi said attendance at the Kiswahili service also dropped from 250 to 130.
The cleric, however, said the Holy Communion service, which draws the bulk of its membership from elderly Christians, was well attended.
"God should come first all times. When we baptise people, we tell them to fight sin, the world, and the devil and remain faithful soldiers of Christ to the end," he said.
The Rev Obwogi said those who had stayed at home did so in pursuit of worldly pleasure in the form of World Cup matches.
Bishop Peter Kairo of the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru said Sunday was a day of worship for Christians and that worship of God should always come first.
He recalled the words of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who used to tell Kenyans to pick only what was good from other peoples' culture.
The executive secretary of the Nakuru Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, Mr Ernest Murimi, who attended the Sunday mass at the Christ the King Cathedral, said it was regrettable that secular pleasures could easily sway Christians from their commitment to worship God on Sunday without fail. Bishop Joseph Kimani of the Kenya National Evangelism Fellowship said God had commanded human beings to set aside a day for prayer.
Senior pastor Reuben Langat of the Lake View Africa Gospel Church said a true Christian could not chose to watch the World Cup instead of going to church on Sunday.
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