*Each Sunday, I look out on the faces of my congregation, and I’m grateful that we have now overcome the various challenges we have now confronted over the previous few years. On the similar time, I’m additionally reminded of all the gorgeous souls we have now misplaced to COVID-19. The pandemic has upended the lives of many in our group, and the residual results are nonetheless being felt.
As pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles (FAME), the oldest African-American church within the metropolis, I’ve all the time strived to guide my members to well being and prosperity. However nothing may have ready us for the challenges of the pandemic, which affected each facet of our church — from how we carried out providers to how we communed with folks. However the church management and I knew it was our calling to tackle COVID-19 and shield our flock. Through the years, we have now continued to study and evolve our approaches to handle the general well being, social, and academic wants of our parishioners and the bigger South LA group.
Though we have now made it via essentially the most troublesome interval of the pandemic, COVID-19 stays a menace to our family members, particularly Black communities in California who’ve been disproportionately impacted by the virus.
In response to the Los Angeles County Public Well being Division, Black residents in Los Angeles County have been twice as prone to be hospitalized with COVID-19 as white residents, and one-and-a-half occasions extra prone to die from the virus. These disparities are unacceptable, and we should work to cut back them.
Now, with COVID-19 vaccines and coverings extensively accessible, we have now the instruments we have to shield ourselves and our family members from critical diseases and deaths. We will return to doing the issues and seeing the folks we love.
To handle these points, we have now needed to overcome many limitations, one of many greatest being my group’s distrust of the medical system as a result of generations of racism and mistreatment. We’ve got labored onerous to coach about COVID-19 security and rebuild belief within the medical system. We’ve got additionally partnered with different trusted entities and organizations just like the College of Southern California and Jewish congregations to share sources, supplies, and data to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve got made it a precedence to coach these near us concerning the sources and instruments accessible to remain secure and shield ourselves, together with vaccines and coverings.
As COVID-19 stays current in our communities, we proceed to step as much as shield our group. The excellent news is that we all know what works. Our church has labored to extend consciousness, belief, and utilization of COVID-19 providers, together with internet hosting teachable Thursdays, that spotlight influential medical professionals to debate vaccination advantages, uncomfortable side effects, and different essential details about COVID-19. Moreover, we opened a wellness heart to create a welcoming and trusting surroundings for these locally, operated by group members to offer mandatory providers that handle COVID-19, similar to vaccinations, testing, and schooling round COVID-19 drugs.
We invite and welcome all Angelenos who’ve questions or want assist to come back and entry these providers.
Overcoming challenges that Black communities right here in Los Angeles and all through California have confronted as a result of COVID-19 has not been straightforward. Nevertheless, via onerous work, listening to our group, and the facility of prayer, we have now discovered methods to win over the virus. In spite of everything, prayers are highly effective, however much more so when paired with COVID-19 drugs.
To study extra about COVID-19 drugs, go to YouCanBeatIt.org.
Concerning the Writer The Rev. Edgar Boyd is pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles (FAME), the oldest African American church within the metropolis. Underneath his management, FAME is working to handle the well being, social and academic wants of parishioners and the encircling group.
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