Coronavirus: Mormon church temporarily shutdown, Jehovah's Witness stops door knocking

Religions throughout New Zealand are following the advice of officials around Covid-19. Photo / 123RF

Mormons are no longer meeting together after the church's leader temporarily suspended gatherings worldwide following the Covid-19 outbreak.

On Friday morning, large gatherings such as weddings, funerals, worship services and even youth activities were suspended for the foreseeable future.

Elsewhere, in New Zealand, a number of Jehovah's Witness congregations had stopped door-knocking homes during the coronavirus outbreak.

"Over the last few days, a few people won't answer the door or some will say they're in self-isolation," spokesman Chris Barker said.

As of Monday morning, there were more than 156,000 cases of coronavirus globally - New Zealand had eight cases - and 5800 deaths worldwide.

Auckland Central and Mount Roskill stake president Anthony Wilson said the suspension had been "hugely disruptive" to the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

"There is no timeframe in place for when normal meetings and activities will commence again," he told the Herald.

"The announcement came early Friday New Zealand time - all events worldwide by that Friday night were cancelled all around the world."

Meanwhile, for the Jehovah's Witness in New Zealand, the practise of door-knocking was under review, Barker said.

The denomination had also cancelled its major assemblies - which could see up to 2000 people attend - for the foreseeable future.

Smaller congregation meetings were going ahead but it was keeping a close eye on any developments imposed by the Government, Barker said.

However, all forms of contact were advised against and people were asked to wash their hands or sanitise on entry and when leaving the congregation.

Jehovah's Witness would keep an eye on any developments across Covid-19 in New Zealand and act upon them, Barker said.

"If the Government says any gathering over 50 or 100 people or whatever, that would immediately rule out a whole stack of our meetings," he said.

"We would probably just meet in small household-type groups ourselves."

Jacinda Ardern displays a graph on Saturday about the country's response to Covid-19. Photo / Getty Images

Churches of Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand were being urged to follow advice by the Ministry of Health.

"We take our proactive response to Covid-19 very seriously," assembly executive secretary Rev Wayne Matheson said.

"In response to recent developments, the Church has cancelled its annual large youth gathering, Connect. It will be replaced with online training.

"We have also cancelled a number of meetings that would have required domestic travel."

It's youth event Connect, due to run between July 3 and 5, had been cancelled recently and replaced with an online training programme.

Meanwhile, Presbyterian churches would remain open for as long as the Government deemed it safe to gather in numbers, Matheson said.

Catholic churches would also continue Mass unless the Government or Ministry advised against doing so, spokesman Father John O'Connor said.

Following the advice from the Ministry last week, a number of precautions had been put in place in its churches the country.

Attendees were expected to avoid touching each other and holy water had been removed from stoups and containers at the church door.

Holy communion would not be distributed from the chalice and communion was to be distributed in hand, not on the tongue.

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