These church leaders say they believe it’s their calling to help spread the word about the importance of getting vaccinated and working together in communities to beat COVID-19.
On May 22, parishioners and members of the greater All Saints Episcopal Church community in Lakewood, New Jersey, arrived at nearby La Casa De La Tia Restaurant for one of the 14 “Grateful for the Shot” COVID-19 vaccination drives held throughout the Garden State.
The goal of these events — an official initiative out of Gov. Phil Murphy’s office — was to get more people vaccinated, dispelling myths, and promoting the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines.
Rev. Juan Angel Monge-Santiago, who has served as the church’s priest for the past 6 years, told Healthline it was important that All Saints Episcopal Church was front and center sponsoring the vaccination drive.
For Monge-Santiago, promoting the vaccines is not only about keeping the church’s community safe, but also about adhering to some core tenants of his religion.
“When it came time for vaccines, we started to let people know that we’ve been involved with local and state health authorities who are providing all the information. We wanted to explain to our community that we were up to par with all the information being provided. We determined it was important we be part of this vaccine push,” he said. “Our bishop said this is our way of showing our love for our neighbor: taking care of ourselves and taking care of others.”
From the beginning of the pandemic, Monge-Santiago said the greater Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey took the health threats of COVID-19 seriously.
They stopped in-person services and instead embraced Zoom-based services like many other churches and places of worship have done around the world during the pandemic.
Once the United States started to turn the corner of the pandemic and gradually reopen, Monge-Santiago said the church started a “reentering, reopening, reimagining task force” for its community, consisting of priests and laypeople alike.
This task force even included a parishioner who happens to also be an epidemiologist, who volunteered to answer questions and offer his expertise about the health crisis.
Monge-Santiago said All Saints’ community is “a big, bilingual, multicultural community.” He offers services in both English and Spanish, and said it was crucial his church sponsor events like the recent vaccine drive given how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected People of Color, especially members of the greater Latino and Hispanic communities.
“I noticed a lot of members of our Hispanic community were being provided information not based on any scientific data, hearing things like, ‘If I get vaccinated, I will die’ or ‘So-and-so died because they got vaccinated,’” he recounted.
Monge-Santiago said he regularly works to dispel such misinformation, and to encourage people in his community to get vaccinated.
“If we want to be here, we have to protect those around us, especially those who can’t be vaccinated because they have a certain medical condition that doesn’t allow them to be vaccinated. We will never get this under control otherwise,” he said.
Source: healthline