Some called it an answer to their prayers.
Pfizer and Moderna received a green light to begin distributing their coronavirus vaccines at the tail end of 2020. And by the spring, vaccine clinics opened their doors to adults across the United States, offering both a stab and the prospect of a long-awaited return to normalcy.
If the onset of the pandemic and its effects dominated news out of religious circles in 2020, then the arrival of vaccines did the same in 2021. It by no means ended the pandemic, as is clear in current concerns surrounding the spread of the omicron variant. But it did change the situation in ways that sparked a variety of sharp reactions and responses – among the religious and in their institutions in this case, as much as in the general public.
Some of the former eagerly joined efforts to educate and advocate for vaccine distribution, including under the umbrella of the V Project, a homegrown initiative that continues to push to see 70 percent of the community vaccinated. In a conversation with The Blade in May, founder Sean Savage cast the faith community as “extremely important” to that effort.
“The sanctity of every human being is core to religion,” Mr. Savage told The Blade. “And the vaccines are saving thousands of lives every day. That is why this is such a unifying force amongst the faith leaders. To vaccinate is to live out one's faith.”
Others saw in their faith a reason to hesitate – or ultimately refuse – a vaccination.
Some raised moral objections to the use of fetal cell lines in the development of the vaccines, to a greater extent in the case of Johnson and Johnson than Pfizer and Moderna. Others objectors were more abstract in weighing the religious and spiritual value of personal choice.
“My standard, the Book of Romans, Christian thought, states that we are bound by God’s laws and then our own conscience,” Pastor Igor “Beau” Beaufils, of the Family Christian Center in Toledo, reflected in a conversation with The Blade in October, as employer-mandated vaccine mandates were bringing these conversations to the fore. “If a congregation member felt that their conscience prohibited them from taking the vaccine, then I would write a letter upholding that position. This must be based on spiritual conviction, rather than baseless fear, conjecture, or incorrect information.”
But the effect of vaccination went further than yea-or-nay debate in 2021. Vaccines also returned a sense of normalcy – or at least the first inklings of it – to religious communities.
Some congregations returned to sanctuaries for the first time in 2021. Those that had already begun to return continued to fill the pews with greater confidence this year – and often in greater numbers, too. Catholics, for example, were specifically asked to return to their churches by June. That's when the Catholic Bishops of Ohio reinstated the usual but long-waived obligation to, in most cases, attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
After a shakeup of business-as-usual in 2020, there were other signs that normalcy was returning, too: Religious summer camps also began to reopen their grounds to young children in 2021; churches and schools began to consider anew the future of border-crossing mission trips; and Christian performers began to return to tour once again.
For King and Country, MercyMe and Lauren Daigle have each stopped at the Huntington Center since October.
“Being back on tour has been incredible, looking out every night seeing people sing along brings a feeling of joy that doesn’t just stop at me,” Ms. Daigle wrote to The Blade in advance of her concert in November. “It circulates around the room, and I think that is something I will never take for granted again especially after this time.”
OTHER NEWS
Not everything this year was directly related to the ongoing pandemic, of course.
Jewish Toledo offered well wishes to the retiring Rabbi Samuel Weinstein of Temple Shomer Emunim in Sylvania, who'd headed that congregation since 1992, and welcomed in Rabbi David Kaufman, who relocated from Des Moine to Toledo in July.
Also of note was the ordination of Winifred Shokai Martin at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo in August. Reverend Martin is the first locally trained priest to be ordained in Toledo, having enrolled in the temple's seminary as a part of its inaugural class in 2017.
The Islamic Center of North West Ohio opened the doors on its new mosque and community center in the spring, just in time for Ramadan. The Ursuline Sisters of Toledo announced plans to close their nursing home early in the year, and reported the happy relocations of the religious sisters, priests and others under their care by the summer. And Reger's Church Supplies and Religious Gifts celebrated a milestone 100th anniversary in September, as one of the last and certainly the oldest locally owned religious bookstores in the area.
Up in Monroe, Mich., Pastor Heather Boone of Oaks of Righteousness picked up national attention in just recent weeks as the recipient of USA Today's Best of Humankind Award. This year saw her neighborhood-based ministry open a grocery store in the model of the Market on the Green in Toledo.
Pastor Boone is already looking ahead to 2022: Keep an eye out for a tiny house village to bring much-needed affordable housing to the community.
“We really are excited about the tiny houses,” she told The Blade in December.
First Published December 26, 2021, 1:00 p.m.
