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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.

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

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

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

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