News

Limited congregations for Christmas mass

Published

2 years ago

2020/12/18

By Norman Palihawadana

Christmas mass would be conducted in churches, situated outside of ‘isolated’ areas, adhering to COVID-19 prevention guidelines, Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday told the media.

The churches would admit only a limited number of people, but several services would be conducted so that most people could take part in the religious ceremonies, he said.

Midnight Christmas mass will be conducted hourly starting from 6.00 p.m. on December 24. The mass will be held in all Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages and telecasted live on many television channels. Even on Christmas morning mass will be held live on television.

“I urge the people to give away the money, for celebrations, to the people who are suffering from COVID-19. The coronavirus is prevalent in the Western Province, so please don’t travel out of the province,” he said.

The archbishop of Colombo urged Christians to celebrate Christmas in their homes and to limit festive shopping.

“COVID-19 is not limited to Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims couldn’t celebrate any of their important religious ceremonies. We must act with discipline.”

The Cardinal added that there will be no representation from the Bishops House to state organized festivities, decorations and parties this year

“We call upon the government to avoid any kind of festivities, unnecessary decorations, and ceremonies.”

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Stay on course and don’t go back to the past – Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Published

3 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

Former Governor of the Central Bank delivering the keynote address at a high profile Webinar hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka today (24) said that Sri Lanka must implement the structural reforms proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without relaxing like in the past or else we will be in a deeper economic mess.

The webinar was titled ‘What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF programme’

News

Sustainable economic development goals cannot be achieved unless attention is paid to mitigating climate change – Sagala Ratnayake

Published

4 hours ago

2023/03/24

Priyan

President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake said sustainable economic development goals cannot be accomplished without taking steps to mitigate climate change.

He said this while participating in the 10,000 sapling planting program organized by the LEO Youth Vision 2048 Club and the LEO Club at the Royal College, Colombo on Thursday (23rd).

This program was organized in view of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s birthday, which is today (24), and the required plants were distributed to the main schools of the Colombo District.

News

SF claims thousands of police and military personnel leaving

Published

16 hours ago

2023/03/24

Thilina Walpola

By Saman Indrajith

Thousands of police and military personnel had left the services recently as they did not want to carry out illegal orders, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament yesterday. According to the war-winning army commander 200 policemen have resigned during the past two months and 25,000 soldiers have left the army during the last two years.

“We urged the law enforcement and military officials not to follow illegal orders. We will reinstate them with back pay,” he said.

Fonseka also urged the President and the government MPs not to take people for fools.

“Sri Lanka owes 55 billion dollars to the world. Ranil’s plan is to borrow another seven billion during the next four years. So, in four years we will owe 62 billion to the world.

Ranil and his ministers ask us what the alternative to borrowing is. These are the people who destroyed the economy and society. They must leave. Then, we will find an alternative and develop the country,” he said, adding that the IMF loans had made crises in other nations worse.

“Ranil says that by 2025, we will have a budget surplus as in Japan, Germany and South Korea. These countries are economic power houses, and this comparison is ludicrous.”