Compassion, caution urged in response to swine flu
By Tom Gillem*
May 1, 2009
There will be no “hello, handshakes and hugs” during the worship
service May 3 at Schertz United Methodist Church. Individual wafers and
disposable cups will be used for communion at the church northeast of
San Antonio.
Over at the United Methodist Committee on Relief, officials are
talking with the 50,000 member Methodist Church of Mexico over ways to
respond to the swine flu epidemic. Melissa Crutchfield, the executive
in charge of international disaster response, said the agency is
working with both church officials and local authorities in Chihuahua
on procuring face masks.
Dr. Terrence Tumpey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, examines 1918 influenza specimens in 2005 to
combat future flu pandemics. A UMNS
photo by James Gathany, CDC.
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Throughout the country, United Methodists are responding to the
spread of the flu with a mixture of caution and compassion,
implementing preventive measures in congregations and urging aid and
prayer for the suffering throughout the world.
“We pray to God to bring healing to our brothers and sisters who
battle the effects of the H1N1 virus, and pray that God will extend His
mighty hand to protect persons in its path,” said Bishop Gregory V.
Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
Palmer urged United Methodists to follow recommended health
guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
state and local health departments, including common sense
precautions:such as good hand-washing practices, avoiding contact with
those who are ill, staying home when sick and covering the mouth and
nose when coughing or sneezing.
Show compassion
Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton of the denomination’sWestern Pennsylvania
Conference said he is especially concerned about the effects of the flu
outbreak on the underprivileged.
“We need to figure out a way, if people in
our parishes contract this (virus), to stay in constant communication
with them and help to provide food services. If they are asked to stay
inside by their doctors, I would want the church to be one of the first
people who knocked on the door.”
–The Rev. Frank Trotter “This
pandemic is something that affects all of us, but there are varying
degrees in which it affects us,” said Bickerton, who is the spiritual
leader of 900 United Methodist congregations in the Pittsburgh area.
“Those of us in the faith community of the church need to recognize
that when something like this affects us, it impacts the
underprivileged—those who are suffering from poverty, those who don't
have proper medical care—in a way that we can't even imagine.”
Christians know that God is not the causal agent, but instead is the
healing agent in endemic diseases like this virus, said the Rev. Frank
Trotter, senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church in
Pasadena, Calif.
“We need to figure out a way, if people in our parishes contract this
(virus), to stay in constant communication with them and help to
provide food services,” said Trotter, whose church has been serving
Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley since 1875. “If they are asked to
stay inside by their doctors, I would want the church to be one of the
first people who knocked on the door.”
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the
first confirmed U.S. H1N1 flu cases in California and Texas on April
23, hundreds of schools have closed and activities around the nation
have been curtailed as the number of flu victims continued to rise. The
U.S. government declared a public health emergency, and the World
Health Organization raised the global alert level to Phase 5, which is
a “strong signal that a pandemic is imminent.”
The Rev. Frank Trotter
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Residents in southwest Texas began taking precautions after two of
the first H1N1 flu cases in the United States were confirmed in
Guadalupe County, northeast of San Antonio. Health officials even asked
Guadalupe residents not to leave the county.
The 437-member congregation at Schertz United Methodist Church
already had canceled an abbreviated Sunday worship service and daylong
faith-in-action community outreach program scheduled for April 26 as
concerns escalated over the spread of the flu from Mexico. The school
district that includes the town of Schertz, northeast of San Antonio,
closed all its schools when more students became ill after two swine
flu cases were confirmed at Steele High School in Cibolo.
Reaching people in need
The Rev. Judith L. Sellers, pastor of the church in Schertz, noted
that because of their heritage, United Methodists are called to reach
out to people in need.
“We're called not only to be in prayer for those people who have
this virus, but also for those who are trying to prevent it, those who
trying to understand it, those who are trying to make the situation as
easy as possible for all of us,” she said.“We are called to help our
congregations and our communities become knowledgeable about the
situation to alleviate panic. I think that we are to educate ourselves
and to care for ourselves so that we are not a part of the problem, but
a part of the solution.”
Bishop Thomas Bickerton
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United Methodists always have been in the forefront with health,
education and other community services, said the Rev. George Joehnk,
director of spiritual care and church connections at Methodist
Healthcare Ministries of South Texas in San Antonio.
“And this is certainly no different,” he said. “If anything, it's a
situation which once again calls us as Methodists to be diligent, to be
helpful, to be supportive of our communities, of our community leaders,
of our healthcare professionals, of the persons who are constantly in
harm's way trying to divert any kind of a pandemic situation.”
The church needs to advocate for those affected by the crisis, according to Bickerton.
“I think it's time to call on all of our churches to be mindful of
those who are suffering from poverty and other injustices in their
communities, to try to find ways to advocate for those people,
especially as the possibility of this epidemic grows, and to provide
avenues for proper healthcare, to provide proper ways for people to
find medical assistance when necessary,” he said. “It's time for the
church to really shine, taking care of the loners, losers and lost ones
of the world.”
The United Methodist Board of Discipleship has posted information about hygiene and Holy Communion.
*Gillem is a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: David Briggs, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5472 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio
Bishop Thomas Bickerton: “…it impacts the underprivileged…”
The Rev. Frank Trotter: “…God, to me, is the healing agent…”
The Rev. George Joehnk: “…diligent…helpful…supportive…”
The Rev. Judith L. Sellers: “…to be in prayer… to help our congregations…”
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Resources
Bishop Palmer Urges Common Sense Precautions Around H1N1 Flu
Schertz United Methodist Church
UMCOR
Swine flu, hygiene and Holy Communion
Faith-based Preparedness Checklist
Blog: Swine Flu and The United Methodist Church
British Methodist Church |