Eternity asked the leaders of major Australian Church networks (denominations) if they have been vaccinated for COVID-19. With the news that deliveries of vaccines have been brought forward, deciding whether to be vaccinated is something more and more Australian citizens and residents will have to decide. So what have the leaders of our major churches done?
We asked Archbishop Mark Coleridge, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane and the elected President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC). Archbishop Mark tells us: “I had the first AstraZeneca jab a while ago and sought to encourage others to do the same. I will have the second jab on 16 July. ”
Archbishop Coleridge possibly will be the first top leader of an Australian denomination to be fully vaccinated. So we put him first in this list – also because the Catholics have the highest church attendance.
Pastor Wayne Alcorn, president of the Australian Christian Churches – the largest Pentecostal network – is scheduled to be vaccinated. Pastor Sean Stanton, their National Secretary, has had his first shot.
Archbishop Geoff Smith, Primate (leader) of the Anglican Church of Australia, had his first shot last week. Archbishop Kaniska Raffel of Sydney has been vaccinated.
Rev. Mark Wilson, the National Ministries Director of Australian Baptist Ministries, has had his first shot, with his second AZ shot due in August.
We have not been able to confirm whether Dr Deidre Palmer, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, has been vaccinated, but it is highly doubtful that she has not been except, perhaps, for a medical reason.
Closer to home, Bible Society CEO Grant Thompson, head of the organisation that publishes Eternity, has had his first shot.
This writer will get his second shot of AZ in a couple of weeks.