The church agreed on this on Wednesday, at a high-level meeting of the all the five synods; Nkhoma, Livingstonia, Blantyre, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

Moderator of the General Assembly Reverend Dr.Timothy Nyasulu told ZODIAK this afternoon that the government would have considered consulting the church as a key partner before announcing the rules.

"We were not approached as a church, so we are not aware of that. The government should have consulted us first before imposing such rules," said Nyasulu.

According to Rev. Dr. Nyasulu, this means "all CCAP congregants will follow the old rule of 100 congregants per service on Sunday and not the gazetted 10 per gathering."

This comes after other stakeholders such as the Evangelical Association of Malawi-ECM as well as the Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa reacted to the same saying the new rules are not realistic and unfavorable for Malawians.

Meanwhile, Government Spokesperson Gospel Kazako says the government is set to meet the church leadership at the soonest top resolve the matter.

"The church is a very important part of society as it represents people. The government is the people. We are ready to meet and talk over this to hear their side," says Kazako.

The government announced the gazetted rules to help prevent further spread of COVID 19 early this week, where among others it has restricted gatherings for instance church gatherings to 10 people and 50 people for funerals.