Places of Worship

Following Easter this year, churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as other meeting places for faith communities took their rightful place in our society. Following the announcement of the latest COVOD-related lockdown a week ago, there was immediate talk about pop-up clinics to be held for people over 18 years of age living in hot spots in parts of Toronto. These being mainly the marginalized, the immigrants, the poor, and the helpless. But what really caught my attention was when they said these pop-up clinics would be, among others sites, in places of worship.

The Easter story went through my head, followed by the long history of various branches of the Christian church right up to today claiming that Jesus died to save us from out sins, that we are guaranteed eternal life. Some sects even go so far as to say those still living when the end of the world comes, will be whisked away during The Rapture to heaven, leaving those unfortunate enough not to be rescued to face the turmoil on earth.

This initiative on the part of faith communities to administer the COVID vaccine to the marginalized seems much more in synch with the message taught by Jesus of Nazareth, the message of love, and justice for all. In fact it will be re-enacting the Easter miracle. People will literally be saved from death, both their own as well as the possible deaths of family and friends.

Then the problem arose that the hot spots were designated by postal codes and not everyone within each postal code was marginalized. We would need to make people prove that they were indeed marginalized before vaccines could be administered! Thanks to the person at the top making the decisions it was announced that everyone with the required postal code would have access to getting the vaccine. No naming and shaming, no priority given, just a decision to treat everyone the same.

This is an Easter story of our time, one that needs to be remembered and retold for years to come.

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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