Evangelical bench requests suspension of governor's decree that demands complete vaccination in churches of PE

The Evangelical caucus of the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco (Alepe) wrote a joint letter requesting the suspension of

Decree No. 51460, published on Monday (27). In the letter, the parliamentarians plead that the state government “maintain the rules in force before the aforementioned decree” and also proposes that “there is more time for discussions in the technical area, religious leaders and these representatives who subscribe in order to deal in detail, with the purpose of paying attention to the various religious entities spread across the state, and their various specific characteristics.” The document was signed by Deputies Erick Lessa, Adauto Santos, Cleiton Collins, William Brígido, Dulci Amorim and Joel da Harpa.

The evangelical bench met with the secretary Executive of Coordination and Monitoring, Eduardo Figueiredo, in addition to Executive Secretary of Health Surveillance, Patrícia Ismael and the Attorney General, Paulo Augusto, debating details of the decree.

The decree of the government of Pernambuco requires vaccination or a negative result for covid-19 in churches with more than 300 people, has been the subject of discussions throughout the state, especially among religious leaders.

“Religious celebrations with more than 300 (three hundred) people must observe the limits of environmental capacity and maximum number of people established in a Joint Ordinance of the Health Department and the Department of Economic Development, which will also regulate the requirement to present proof of the complete vaccination schedule and/or negative test results for the Covid 19″, says the text.

What the religious leaders say “We believe that the measure taken by the government is a global trend. Several countries have been taking decisions in this regard. Therefore, we believe that the role of the church at this time is to walk together with society, so that we can overcome the evil that is the coronavirus. The people’s health is the priority. If we need to gather more than 300 people, we will, yes, check the vaccination schedule and comply with the protocols”, says Guilherme Alves, pastor of Igreja A Ponte.

For Alberto Freitas, president of the Baptist Convention of Pernambuco, the measure is fundamental for the return to normal activities. “For services with a larger number of people, we now have this need, both for churches and for theaters, clubs, cinemas. The requirement is being uniform for all types of gatherings of people. So, we understand that it is part of this need and it is a step that is taken towards a return to normal activities, including the churches”, he says.

According to Cristina Pires, president of the Pernambuco Spiritist Federation, the spiritist temples were already working with a quantity below the permitted level. “In our case, the Spiritist Center, we have an auditorium for 500 people. We started with release for 50, we went to 70 and we’re going to go to 100 people now in October. We chose this percentage because we managed to keep our distance, we managed to have everyone wearing masks and to check everyone’s temperature”, explains the nun.

The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Fernando Saburido, said that little changes for the state’s ecclesial communities, since the measure concerns celebrations that count with the presence of more than 300 people . “We all recommend the vaccine and we believe in its effectiveness,” he added.

The Executive Secretary for Economic Development from Pernambuco, Ana Paula Vilaça, in an interview with TV Jornal, explained that the measure is an advance and not an obstacle for the faithful to attend their temples.

“This requirement is for any type of social activity, events, that bring together more than 300 people. What we promoted was an advance, flexibility. As it was before, up to 300 people do not require vaccination control. From 300 people or 80% of the space capacity, whichever is smaller, we can have up to 2500 people in these places”, says the secretariat, adding that each institution should organize the access of the faithful. Source: JC online

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