No knocking on gates during COVID - Jehovah’s Witnesses take ministry online

Jehovah's Witnesses have stopped knocking on gates in order to minister to people since the pandemic, but the religious body, like others, has been using the online space to good effect.

Rojae Davidson, public communications representative for the Jehovah's Witnesses, told THE STAR that the body has not had face-to-face worship since Jamaica recorded its first case of COVID-19 last March. Additionally, the group has decided against knocking on gates in order to reduce the exposure of its members to the highly contagious virus.

"Since the start of COVID, we have been continuing our door-to-door ministry virtually. We write letters to the public as well as make telephone calls. We also conduct free Bible studies with the public via conferencing tools such as Zoom, etc. and also via telephone calls," Davidson said.

Places of worships have been subjected to various levels of restriction under the Disaster Risk Management Act, the key legislative tool being used to fight the novel coronavirus.

Davidson said that the Jehovah's Witnesses body has been making use of online technology and "have been doing well".

"We have seen benefits keeping our meetings online. Pretty much most, if not all of our activities, are still going on. We still preach and reach out to persons virtually, of course, and we still have all our meeting as we would usually have. So, we have been doing pretty well," he added.

Jamaica has recorded 72,824 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, when 837 new cases entered the system. There have been 1,646 deaths confirmed as being as a result of COVID-19 and another 197 under investigation.

There have been 4,342 COVID-19 cases and 97 virus-related deaths since the start of September.

Exercise safety

Davidson said that Jehovah's Witnesses have been urged to pay attention to the health protocols that have been put in place to minimise the spread of infection.

"We do believe it is very important that persons, as much as they possibly can, should exercise safety and respect for life, both their lives and others. In terms of precautions taken, we do believe it is up to each and every individual person or family," he said.

As it relates to taking the COVID-19 vaccine, there are no religious barriers to Jehovah's Witnesses doing so.

"What we focus on is to ensure that persons are doing all that they can to protect themselves and their families. So, if a family has done careful consideration regarding their personal circumstances and they see fit that the vaccination is the best way to protect themselves and their families, then by all means, because the Bible does encourage us that we need to have respect for life, and doing all that we can in our power is a demonstration of that," Davidson said.

"As Witnesses, what we have done is [that] we have done research regarding how the different vaccines, how they are made. And based on what we have found, they aren't in any conflict with Bible principles. So, we don't necessarily go out and tell persons to not take the vaccine, or the vaccine is the best answer; but we do encourage persons to do protect themselves and their families," Davidson said.