The lead­ers of Chris­t­ian Church­es in this coun­try have is­sued a joint state­ment in which they call on their con­gre­ga­tions “to make an in­formed moral choice that serves the com­mon good” and “to se­ri­ous­ly con­sid­er tak­ing the vac­cine and the boost­er.”

In the state­ment, the Chris­t­ian lead­ers make a strong ap­peal to the gen­er­al pub­lic to do their ut­most to slow the spread of COVID-19 by be­ing “our broth­er’s keep­er”.

“We ap­peal to all cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go to live with the high­est de­gree of dis­ci­pline dur­ing this Covid-19 time for the sake of pro­tect­ing oth­ers, es­pe­cial­ly the most vul­ner­a­ble by keep­ing the health pro­to­cols...”

The full text of the state­ment fol­lows…

To­day, we say good­bye to a year like no oth­er in liv­ing mem­o­ry. Our op­ti­mism en­ter­ing 2021 gave way to re­al­ism and some­times de­spair. Now as we say good­bye to 2021, we the Chris­t­ian lead­ers of Church­es in Trinidad and To­ba­go pray that op­ti­mism gives way to hope in 2022.

Op­ti­mism be­lieves that things will get bet­ter. Hope be­lieves that even if things get worse, we know the One in whom we trust and we be­lieve that He is with us and that He will lead, guide and pro­tect us against what­ev­er comes our way. We ask you, as we en­ter 2022, to be­come a per­son of hope.  Hope is be­liev­ing the promis­es of God even when all ev­i­dence is against it (Rom 4:18ff).

We will be liv­ing with Covid-19 for a while to come. We have learnt much over the last 21 months.

We have so much to learn still if we are go­ing to live with Covid-19 as re­spon­si­ble cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go and dis­ci­ples of Je­sus Christ.

God gave us free will—a most pre­cious gift that we need to learn to use more wise­ly. Every gift has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. While we thank God that we have free will, we need to learn to use this gift to serve the com­mon good. We need to learn to give our life for Christ’s sake and that of oth­ers (Mt 16:25).

We ap­peal to all cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go to live with the high­est de­gree of dis­ci­pline dur­ing this Covid-19 time for the sake of pro­tect­ing oth­ers, es­pe­cial­ly the most vul­ner­a­ble by keep­ing the health pro­to­cols: wash your hands, wear your masks, and be very dis­ci­plined and re­spect­ful of oth­ers in pub­lic spaces by main­tain­ing the stip­u­lat­ed so­cial dis­tance. If you have flu-like symp­toms, any rea­son to be­lieve that you were ex­posed or there is any doubt at all, please choose to quar­an­tine and not come in­to pub­lic places so that we keep every­one as safe as pos­si­ble.

We want to em­pha­sise the need for each per­son to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for all. It is no longer ‘I’ but ‘we’, and ‘we’ have to start em­pha­sis­ing the com­mon good if we are go­ing to live through this pan­dem­ic to­geth­er and flour­ish as a com­mu­ni­ty. As Caribbean peo­ple, we are very tac­tile and love to be with each oth­er. We must safe­guard each oth­er.

We all want to main­tain in-per­son wor­ship. This will re­quire a high de­gree of per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty from min­is­ters, choirs and con­gre­ga­tions to keep masks on at all times or to have suit­able pro­tec­tion to elim­i­nate the like­li­hood of any kind of spread. We all need to keep the pro­to­cols that we have put in place in our church­es and be vig­i­lant around the en­force­ment of these pro­to­cols. We want our church­es to wel­come all peo­ple. This means that we need to make them safer than ‘a safe zone’.

We are all suf­fer­ing from Covid-19 pro­to­col fa­tigue. This is not the time to wa­ver. As a re­sult of the lock­downs, many fam­i­lies have had loss of jobs, ex­pe­ri­enced de­pres­sion, anx­i­ety, phys­i­cal, sex­u­al and emo­tion­al abuse. We com­mis­er­ate with the many fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones.

Our church­es must be places of hope where peo­ple can ex­pe­ri­ence the love of Je­sus through our wor­ship and fel­low­ship. As min­is­ters of Christ, re­newed in mind and heart, we need to work tire­less­ly for the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and har­mo­ny of all (2 Cor 5:17ff).

Our na­tion has suf­fered from the can­cer of di­vi­sive­ness for many decades now. That must not hap­pen amongst us. On the night be­fore He died, Je­sus prayed that we may be one (Jn 17:20 ff).  Christ has al­ready equipped us to build up the uni­ty of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).

We have an oblig­a­tion to keep each oth­er safe and to ed­u­cate all for the ser­vice of the com­mon good. While you have a free choice con­cern­ing the vac­cine, we urge you to see what mod­ern sci­ence has done in fight­ing so many dis­eases that haunt­ed the world fifty years ago—Po­lio, Measles, Tetanus, Flu, He­pati­tis B, Mumps, Chick­en­pox, Malar­ia, etc. In the ser­vice of all, many were vac­ci­nat­ed.

Many cit­i­zens are still strug­gling with the in­for­ma­tion sur­round­ing vac­ci­na­tion and this pan­dem­ic.  We all have an oblig­a­tion to make an in­formed moral choice that serves the com­mon good. It has been re­peat­ed­ly re­port­ed that 97% of the deaths from Covid-19 are un­vac­ci­nat­ed peo­ple. Amidst the hes­i­ta­tion, we urge you to se­ri­ous­ly con­sid­er tak­ing the vac­cine and the boost­er.

As a source of uni­ty, the church must not let the so­ci­etal di­vi­sion be­tween the vac­ci­nat­ed and the un­vac­ci­nat­ed be­come a wedge in the Body of Christ. We must re­spect each oth­er.

This will de­mand a re-or­der­ing of pri­or­i­ties at every lev­el of our so­ci­ety as we keep in mind those on the mar­gins. It will al­so de­mand di­a­logue and con­sul­ta­tion with labour, eco­nom­ic stake­hold­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety, re­li­gious lead­ers and gov­ern­ment to find a mean­ing­ful way for­ward. 

In Gen­e­sis, God gave Adam the man­date to nur­ture and to guard (Gen 2:15). In 2022, we need to nur­ture and care for each oth­er. We al­so need to guard and keep each oth­er safe. Our heart goes out to the chil­dren who have not had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to so­cialise, play or con­gre­gate in school for the last 21months. For their sake, let us find a way to build a bet­ter, safer Trinidad and To­ba­go in 2022.

Re­mem­ber this is a year of Hope.

Let us put our faith and trust in the Lord for He will not dis­ap­point us.

Signed:

African Methodist Epis­co­pal Church

An­gli­can Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Methodist Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Mora­vian Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Pres­by­ter­ian Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Ro­man Catholic Church of Trinidad and To­ba­go

Trinidad and To­ba­go Coun­cil of Evan­gel­i­cal Church­es