Circus Circus manager Patrick Ndlovu greets Sweetwaters Church pastor Callie Martin after the Sunday service. The service was held in the restaurant. Circus Circus manager Patrick Ndlovu greets Sweetwaters Church pastor Callie Martin after the Sunday service. The service was held in the restaurant.
Durban - Sunday churchgoers are known to go to their local shopping malls after attending their services, but in eManzimtoti, there is no need for that.
Now, every Sunday, a church service takes place in the Galleria Mall. The service is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Some mall workers have been unable to go to church because they work on a Sunday, but they are now able to attend a service at the mall, which starts before shops open.
Yesterday about 80 worshippers, including Galleria Mall staff, attended the service held in the Circus Circus restaurant, which owner Alister Abrahams offered to the Sweetwaters Church in eManzimtoti for weekly services. The church is described as a “spirit-filled family church”.
Churchgoers sat and prayed at the restaurant tables in the “church in the mall”, drinking coffee, which the church pays for.
Pastor Callie Martin told his congregation during the hour-long service that it did not matter where people were when they worshipped.
He said that the idea had been to do something different and to go to places where the church was not normally seen.
Gary Kelly, who was at the service with his wife, Hanelie, said times were changing and because people could not always get to a church, because they had to workthe church had to go to them.
“It’s a brilliant idea: how nice to go to church and have a coffee and breakfast as well,” he said.
Inba Ramgasamy, manager of the Oriental Restaurant at Galleria, who has been a Christian for 10 years, said that he was unable to go to his church on the South Coast because he had to be at work early on Sunday.
“As a Christian, if you don’t go to church on a Sunday, your whole week is chaotic. But now, with the “church in the mall” service I can worship before going to work. It is very useful,” he said.
Meanwhile, other services were going on as normal at other Sweetwaters churches in nearby Winklespruit (the main campus) and Illovo, with the Winklespruit service being streamed live on Facebook.
