Safeguarding God's People and Protecting God's Children
/- St Benedict Senior Warden, Jeff Zahir
Safeguarding God’s People is the Episcopal promise to be assiduous in the care, protection, and advocacy for all children, most especially those given to our care and training. In 2020, the Diocese of Olympia added a requirement for immunization against communicable diseases for adults working with children.
It’s never been enforced but offered as a way of formalizing our commitment to our children and loving them “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14).
Because of recent questions of trust in science and medicine, our resolve to protect God’s children from illness is challenged. But the proof is incontrovertible.
Before modern public health programs and immunizations, roughly half of all children died before reaching adulthood. The World Health Organization estimates that without the 14 core vaccines for preventable diseases, at least 154 million additional people would have died – mostly under the age of 5 – over the past 50 years.
The largest spike in communicable diseases occurs during the Christmas season. Please consider being vaccinated this Fall.
