Mind blowing to witness something like this occurring in this day & age.
Worshippers at the Roman Catholic Christ the King church in Southwest London had their mass shut down & were ordered to immediately leave the church.
Video shows officers walking up to the pulpit and ordering parishioners to leave immediately or face fines and/or arrest.
The officer says, “you are not allowed to meet inside with this many people under law. At this moment in time, you need to go home. Failure to comply with this direction to leave and go to your home address ultimately could lead you to be fined £200 or, if you fail to give you details, to being arrested. It’s Good Friday and I appreciate you would like to worship, but it is unlawful.”
Police later put out a statement trying to defend their action saying “Officers attended and found a large number of people inside the church. Some people were not wearing masks and those present were clearly not socially distanced.”
In a statement to UK’s The Independent, the church says “the faithful obeyed ... without objection” when told to leave, but they added that “We believe, however, that the police brutally exceeded their powers by issuing their warrant for no good reason, as all government requirements were met.”
Meanwhile in Canada, police tried to break up a church service in Calgary but the pastor, Artur Pawlowski, was having none of it and told the officers to leave.
In a video posted online pastor Pawlowski, is heard calling them “Nazis” and “Gestapo” while telling them to leave.