Hawaii church leaders unify to promote COVID-19 vaccine

Church leaders are increasingly banding together to combat COVID-19 among their congregations, hosting vaccination clinics, countering anti-vaccination protests and even taking out a full-page ad in the Honolulu Star-­ Advertiser last month to register their support for medical evidence and the effectiveness of the vaccines.

The push comes amid ongoing concerns from the state Department of Health about clusters in places of worship and news reports about some churches defying COVID-19 safety protocols and ministers spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines.

The Rev. David Gierlach, rector at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Honolulu, recently helped organize a small rally among religious leaders to promote vaccination. He said religious leaders have a natural role to play in combating the pandemic.

“Our faith calls us to care for our neighbor and to protect one another and to look out for one another,” he said. “Every major denomination, even every major faith group in the world, believes and promotes that.”

He said the controversy over the vaccines that has erupted within some churches is indicative of politics invading faith.

“I think politics has poisoned some aspects of faith to make something like this a political issue, when it’s not. It’s a public-­health issue,” said Gierlach. “There should be no dispute, no debate that the vaccine is absolutely something that we need to do as human beings and people of faith. And the fact that some folks are rallying against it is stunning and disappointing to me.”

The push among religious leaders to increase vaccination rates comes as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus has caused cases to soar throughout the islands, straining the resources of hospitals. Intensive care units throughout the islands have been full or overflowing, causing hospitals to postpone elective procedures, set up tents outside their emergency rooms to help triage patients and scramble to bring in extra medical-grade oxygen.

On Friday the Department of Health reported eight more COVID-19-related deaths and 747 new cases. Among those hospitalized with COVID-19 over the past couple of months, about 85% to 90% have been unvaccinated.

The strain on Hawaii’s health care system prompted Hawaii Christian clergy to take out an advertisement in the Star-Advertiser on Aug. 26 urging residents to get vaccinated.

“We do so with the conviction that this is the loving thing to do as commanded by our Savior Jesus who challenges us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves,” they wrote.

The letter was signed by close to 100 members of the clergy throughout the islands.

“Science has provided us with solid facts that are important for all to recognize,” they wrote, in regard to the effectiveness of the available vaccines.

Outbreaks in churches have been an ongoing problem throughout the pandemic. In March, state health officials publicly urged King’s Cathedral in Kahului to cancel in-person events until a growing case cluster, which grew to at least 77 cases, was contained. Leaders at on Oahu church, Unified … Hawaii appeared to have covered up a large cluster of COVID- 19 infections that emerged after an Easter Sunday service as they exchanged misinformation about the dangers of the vaccine.

And in August, state officials warned that anyone who participated in recent Lihue Missionary Church youth excursions might have been exposed to COVID-19. The Department of Health usually doesn’t disclose locations of clusters, but in this case state officials said church leaders weren’t cooperating with contact-tracing efforts, prompting the public warning.

The Department of Health has investigated numerous clusters at places of worship in recent months, and warned in July that clusters continued to be tied to religious establishments where people weren’t wearing masks or social-distancing, and where people were socializing amid food and drinks.

But religious leaders say that the public shouldn’t get the impression that this is the case in all, or even most, places of worship.

The Rev. Ron Pfeifer of Mililani Presbyterian Church told the Star-Advertiser last month that many churches throughout Hawaii have been taking the pandemic seriously. His own church voluntarily closed down to in-person worship services for several months. In August he said his church was at only 50% capacity and requires masks and 6-foot social distancing between every family bubble. He said the church hadn’t had any socializing with food or drink since March 2020 and has a COVID-19 task force that monitors every new development and public-health directive related to the pandemic.

Gierlach also said many of the Episcopal churches had returned to virtual worship services amid the surge in cases tied to the delta variant, and said the majority of his congregation was vaccinated.

“We trust God to care for us, but we also trust that God has given us reason and science and intellect to use it,” he said. “No more than would I suggest that I can pray to God and walk in front of a bus and God will save me, do I think that someone can say God is going to protect me from COVID. That’s magical thinking and unfortunate kind of thinking.”