{"id":5266,"date":"2020-07-04T06:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T06:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/?p=5266"},"modified":"2020-07-04T07:09:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T07:09:07","slug":"a-church-where-beer-and-whisky-are-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/?p=5266","title":{"rendered":"Gabola church where beer and whisky are allowed to open its branches in Kenya."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When South Africa began easing its coronavirus lockdown in May, it allowed religious worshippers to gather in groups of up to 50, but banned people assembling to drink alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a problem for the Gabola church \u2014 the name means \u2018drinking\u2019 in the local Tswana language \u2014 for whom a tipple is an integral part of their religious worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded just two years ago, the church tried to hold its usual meetings in local bars, called shebeens, to praise God while downing whisky, but they soon got arrested, its leader and self-styled \u2018pope\u2019 Tsietsi Makiti, 55, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey can arrest us until Jesus comes back,\u201d said Makiti, wearing a bishop\u2019s mitre with a miniature bottle of spirits hanging off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he added they had been moving services from place to place to avoid a run-in with the cops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;People call us drunkards but we are doing God&#8217;s work. Even Jesus turned water into wine.&#8221; Makiti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Gabola church, every worshipper comes with his own drink and they share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sermon where Christ turned water into wine is very popular with the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gabola means ..drinking.<br>So the church is named the drinking church of South Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The church is considering starting a branch in Kenya<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"496\" src=\"http:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/gabola-church-3-768x496-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/gabola-church-3-768x496-1.png 768w, https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/gabola-church-3-768x496-1-300x194.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>A church member checking in with a crate of beer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"420\" height=\"518\" src=\"http:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/0f916ac6acbe47b1a4c6eddb8bf5c505-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/0f916ac6acbe47b1a4c6eddb8bf5c505-1.jpg 420w, https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/0f916ac6acbe47b1a4c6eddb8bf5c505-1-243x300.jpg 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><figcaption>Holy water&#8217;: Bishop Tsietsi Makiti of Gabola Church begins his weekly sermon after sipping on a shot of whisky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When South Africa began easing its coronavirus lockdown in May, it allowed religious worshippers to gather in groups of up to 50, but banned people assembling to drink alcohol. That\u2019s a problem for the Gabola church \u2014 the name means \u2018drinking\u2019 in the local Tswana language \u2014 for whom a tipple is an integral part &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5266"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5274,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5266\/revisions\/5274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}