H eadlines
Interfaith Group Pushes for Vaccine Access
L OCA L
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
membership waxed and
waned, and the definition of
what “more” should be was
contested, efforts to pursue
that goal were hamstrung.
When the group deliberated
over writing a joint letter
during the 2020 election cycle,
the final product was “a sort of
lowest-common-denominator compromise position,” Eller
said. But at the Feb. 24 Zoom
meeting, there was more
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A FEB. 24 MEETING
of the Wissahickon Faith
Community Association “just
sort of exploded,” according
to Enten Eller, pastor at the
Ambler Church of the Brethren
and the Living Stream Church
of the Brethren.
The subject: COVID-19
vaccine appointments.
The WFCA, an interfaith
group of churches, mosques
and synagogues, has been
together for more than 30 years.
Today, the WFCA promotes
interreligious and interracial
understanding, community
service, pulpit exchanges and an
annual Thanksgiving service.
For years, Eller said, there
had been a bubbling desire
among WFCA members to do
more. But more of what?
Because the group’s active
Rabbi Gregory Marx is a member of the Wissahickon Faith Community
Association. Photo by Dara King
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12 MARCH 11, 2021
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agreement as faith leaders
shared story after story about
the difficulties their congre-
gants faced in finding the
COVID-19 vaccine. It wasn’t
just that the elderly, infirm
or otherwise eligible congre-
gants weren’t able to navigate
the warren of web-based
schedulers; there was the
concurrent feeling that so
many of their seemingly ineli-
gible congregants had secured
appointments instead.
“I’ve been speaking to
various different dignitaries
and leaders in the commu-
nity, and we’re seeing a lot
of line-jumping,” said Rabbi
Gregory Marx of Congregation
Beth Or, one of the group’s
members, who compared the
vaccine inequities to food
deserts. “People of privilege,
using their position, their
power, their influence, to get
the shots above people that are
not of privilege.”
What came out of the Feb. 24
meeting was a paradigm shift,
Eller said. The group decided
to get more active, and to speak
out more forcefully: They sent
out press releases and wrote
articles for the Ambler Gazette.
Pastor Charles Quann, senior
pastor at Bethlehem Baptist
Church in Spring House, plans
to elevate the WFCA’s work in
his writing for The Philadelphia
Tribune. “In seeing where things in
this culture have gone, even
in just the last handful of
months, the Wissahickon Faith
Community has had a renewed
commitment to trying to be
active in our communities, to
be a force for good, to work
for breaking down barriers and
looking out for those that are
most vulnerable,” Eller said.
“It doesn’t have to be this
way,” said Pastor Kris Chandler,
who leads Trinity Lutheran
Church in Fort Washington.
“And I just thought that we
could take an active role here,
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Pastor Charles Quann had to turn away over 1,000 people from a March 7
vaccination event at his church.
Courtesy of Bethlehem Baptist Church
I’ve been speaking to various different
dignitaries and leaders in the community, and
we’re seeing a lot of line-jumping.”
RABBI GREGORY MARX
giving voice to those that are
not being represented when it
comes to vaccinations.”
Marx, Eller, Chandler and
Quann have all been involved
in efforts to get vaccine appoint-
ments for their congregants.
At Beth Or, member parents
have called for appoint-
ments on behalf of preschool
teachers, among other internal
efforts, while Quann was there
when 200 of his community
members received vaccines
through the Black Doctors
COVID-19 Consortium and
Abington Hospital–Jefferson
Health at his church.
However many have been
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM helped, many more remain
isolated without access to
a vaccine, Quann said. And
the unequal distribution of
the vaccines has reinforced
mistrust in institutions.
“People are angry,” Quann
said. “They feel again that
there are those who are getting
preferential treatment.”
Members of the WFCA hope
that their work will remedy some
of the frustration and inequity.
“We’re not on a boat by
ourselves,” Marx said. “We’re
all in this boat together.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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MARCH 11, 2021
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