 Aloha and welcome to Think Tech Hawaii for this show. This show is the state of the state of Hawaii and I'm your host Stephanie Goldalton. As you know, this show is about newsworthy topics and rising issues affecting our state and today's focus is on faith-based communities experiences under COVID. With contagion threatening from everywhere as it has in Hawaii over our year of this or more, how is it that churches and pastors and parishioners meet their congregations spiritual needs and at the same time pursue and ensure that their outreach to the numerous vulnerable and needy subgroups they traditionally serve? How do they manage all of this? I feel that the where has I haven't been as exposed to media and topics just now and then on this topic and I realized that and thought that maybe the viewers too would like to know more have an expert come and give us a real close-up look at it and today we have such an expert deeply experienced to share the experience of a church community working through the pandemic crisis and he is Father David Gerlach. He's rector at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Paloma. So welcome Father David. Good afternoon. Nice to see you Stephanie. So good to have you here and that you can take the time and I think that it may even be a sacrifice on your part. I'm sorry but I really think it's an important issue to raise awareness about. I just would like to start with where you're comfortable to start but it's a question about how our faith-based communities under the stress and demand of contagion and certainly limited budgets in how are you keeping faith alive while maintaining the food security, the hygiene, the cleanliness programs, the other regular services that the state's neediest people and subgroups really depend on. So maybe you could describe to us a little bit about what that challenge is. St. Elizabeth's is a church that's been in Paloma for 120 plus years. We've been very involved in the local community in terms of trying to meet the needs of basically an immigrant community and a generally economically poor community. And of course we have members who are from many generations who have moved out to the suburbs and are doing fine financially. So two things really to meet the needs of our elders who are maybe retired, don't live in the community and so forth. Once COVID hit we really were having to rely on telephone calls and letters. We began issuing our monthly newsletter every week which we continue to do to keep people informed of what's going on and just to try to stay in touch. And that part's been very hard. You know I've written hundreds and hundreds of letters and cards and have received very many back from our folks but it sure isn't the same as holding someone's hand or looking them in the eye but until very recently with the vaccines COVID didn't permit that. On the social services side of things where you know we have had a daily food pantry for many many years. We averaged three or four hundred bags of food a month before COVID. We're now averaging three to four thousand bags a month after COVID and in the midst of it. We primarily used to help folks who were houseless. That has dramatically shifted and now the vast majority of the people who come for food aid are many in our Filipino community and Chinese community folks who were employed in the visitor industry or the airport and places like that that lost the bulk of jobs because of this catastrophe. So we've seen our social side of things just kind of blow through the roof. Thankfully through IHS Institute for Human Services they were able to get our whole staff vaccinated among the first group. We got vaccinated in January and February. So in terms of having people at least safe to provide these services the vaccine really helped. What is the IHS? IHS is the Institute for Human Services. It's the largest single provider of services to the houseless. They began in the late 1970s with another Episcopal priest Claude Dutille who was handing out peanut butter sandwiches in Chinatown and they are now these many years later a multi multi-million dollar social service agency. So is that supported by the state at all? Yes the state, the county, the federal government they have funding sources from all three as well as private donations. Well I'm just shocked to go from 400 to 4,000 that that is overwhelmingly difficult to feel the pain that those people are enduring. I mean to have such a hit in Honolulu where you feel the fruits on the trees and the coconuts are falling down from the palm trees and we have the ocean and yet there can be so much hurt and need that's truly amazing. So I'm glad you said that and we can hear more specifics about that if you have them to share. So what has happened to the volunteers for the programs that are that you're still running? I mean for that who is helping with these distributions father because they must not be able to come? I mean that's the problem. Well actually that hasn't, the opposite is the case. Just as the need has expanded the numbers of people stepping up to volunteer has also. So there's huge numbers of people from the community who come to assist us in making bags, in handing out the bags of food, coming to food bank with us to help us out with that. The Quakers have been wonderful, the Mormons have really stepped up with us. The Newman Center of our Roman Catholic friends have been supplying volunteers. Just folks come from all walks of life. Younger people we have a young couple who's here from California who are living at our Catholic Worker House at Wally House for three months and they've just been marvelous you know they've got lots of energy they connect really well with people who are on the streets or otherwise having a difficult time they're very enthusiastic and we've had a couple of gals who used to be on the street who now live in our container apartment and they have been an enormous help. Pat Guy featured them in the Star Advertiser a couple of Sundays ago. So yeah as the need has grown so has volunteers a number of our sister churches have basically redirected their social ministries to us so that we have kind of a central place to distribute sandwiches and hygiene and things like that. So yeah it's been a lot of blessings along with the curse of this COVID. Well as you know that there have been reports of breakouts in faith-based communities. I'm the one I'm aware of most recently is the Kauai's incident and it was alarming but it was a few people but a few people was alarming also with COVID and hopefully you know not the other variant that can be even more contagious but it seemed like and is it the case that the Department of Health is on top of it and right there at the ready to investigate it but the question is are they doing things to help? Does that end up being DOH doing due diligence that check the boxes and and follow procedures for public health policy but are they helping? What do they what is DOH do? Well I think just the guidance that they've provided to us that then goes to the folks who are you know in positions of authority above me like our bishop who then sends out guidance and directives to the churches. So we most of our members continue to participate in worship services virtually either through Facebook live or Zoom. Slowly folks are coming back more so the people in the in the neighborhood who might not have as ready access to technology. For the longest time we went from over 200 on a Sunday down to about 20. This past Sunday we had 57 in church but we're still practicing social distancing. Every other Pugh is marked off. We began two weeks ago because everybody was vaccinated to say no need masks. The CDC was recommending if you're vaccinated you can't give it or get it indoors but this past Sunday because we've seen the spike locally we've resumed mask wearing in the church during the service. So we try to follow the science as best as we can. I think the situations of churches that where there have been outbreaks have been those who come from maybe a different kind of place theologically who didn't believe in mask wearing and thought that God would protect them. I would like to ask them if they walk in front of buses on a routine basis so God will protect them but I haven't asked that yet but you know I think we need to be smart about how we deal with this. Those who are most vulnerable are I think wisely staying away at this point and the hope is is that we're coming to an end but unless more people get vaccinated I'm afraid we're going to be in this kind of twilight zone for a while. Well do you have any comments on on that particular belief system that that provides people with this this notion they don't need to be vaccinated is this another thing they can go swim with the sharks and like Daniel went in the lion's den they're going to be okay so they're going to be fine with the virus what do you have any ways about that the helpful or how to help other I encourage our folks on a weekly basis to get vaccinated our church is open twice a week Wednesdays and Friday afternoons in association with the we are Oceania group as well as Kalihipalama Health Center in Queens and we're providing free vaccinations twice a week four hours each day and we are doing our utmost to encourage the other church groups that use our facility we have a number of Chukees smaller groups I talk to the pastors until they probably are sick of hearing from me encouraging them to encourage their people to get the vaccination there's just no excuse not to do it I firmly believe it's our Christian duty to do it because not only do we protect ourselves and the gift of life that we've each been given but even more importantly from a Christian point of view we're protecting our neighbor because you can be asymptomatic or have a mild case but you can give it to somebody and it can be fatal to them and that is particularly worrisome with this new variant coming around because the longer this disease can mutate and the more opportunities it has to mutate the greater the chances that even this current vaccine could be overcome by it so there's a real urgency to get people vaccinated and I just don't have any patience for for folks who talk about magic you know God gave us brains to use and I'm pretty sure he expects us to use them it's the old story of the fellow who's drowning in the ocean and they throw him a life jacket and they throw him a buoy and they bring a helicopter by and of course he refuses all of them because God's going to save him and when he dies and goes up to the pearly gates he says why didn't you save me and God says I sent you the life preserver and the buoy and the helicopter what more did you want so you know go to hell so excuse me but I'm on my day off so I guess I can be a little risqué some of the time with us in the and it's always the comic relief is always appreciated kind of the Pacific Islander community I know the church serves several of those communities right Tongan in as well as Chukis and and do they have vaccination hesitancy at all or how do they think about it no my experience with the Pacific Island community is initially it was an issue of just communication with getting in the correct language to people so people knew about it but I have not experienced any kind of any particular reluctance at all once people know where they can get it and how they can get it for the most part everybody's lining up to to get vaccinated and then it's a good thing because they're among the most vulnerable population groups and they tend to get the sickest when they get sick so yeah well are you referring to the multi-generational households and also the fact that you know certainly the matriarchs are performing numerous roles with the handling of the the nutrition and then being of course the nurse practitioner and all of that when there's ever any problem is that what you're referring to that they're certainly in part that and those things are all very true and the other part is is that many of our Pacific Island friends have pre-existing health conditions whether it be diabetes or overweight or other kinds of medical conditions that can make covid much much worse well um I have has your church lost those people have you what what have been the losses in the church congregation the only the only person who has died of covid in our community a total population of about 300 people is one Tongan man in his 40s who contracted it um early on in the disease last spring a year ago spring and left a young family behind oh my gosh was he in Hawaii when that yeah yeah yeah yeah so it was just very very very tragic yeah very sad um yeah very sad um I um I'm very I'm just awful to hear that so it's because it it's not that it's unnecessary that these people are lost what is it it's luck I don't know it's karma or it's not even karma I mean it's just it's just kind of hard to know it's just it's random it's random and that's why people need to get vaccinated because you cannot risk getting it for yourself or for anybody else you might give it to absolutely well what now that uh one other question I had at the net grit level is now how are you um are you spending more out of your precious budget for um sanitation and cleaning and or air filtering what's happened to you for meeting those requirements I'm sure that the health department has made you aware of well those things have kind of evolved over time so when covid first came out yeah we were spending quite a bit on sanitizers and sanitizing the pews and removing books and so forth but I think the science more and more is is that this is not a disease that's typically transmitted by touch as much as it is by air and so mostly it's the mask mandates um we have not installed like extra air purifiers in the church it wouldn't be practical for us to do it given the layout of the church there's just so much open area that I don't know that we could accomplish it but we just minimize the numbers of people who are allowed to gather um and then require the mask wearing um in terms of overall budgeting we've been very fortunate uh folks have continued to keep up with their pledges and for that we're extremely grateful uh we were able to secure a small business association loan uh which is repayable over 30 years at a ridiculous interest rate and so that helped us as well as a ppp loan that took care of about 20 of our payroll costs in 2020 so financially we're doing okay um and uh and the question becomes though once covid is over are people going to feel like they don't really need to get up for mass anymore because they can enjoy the mass on zoom with their coffee and uh snugly bunny slippers on we will see let's say we will see there's no travel time involved but then of course you don't get right yeah so that's really interesting yeah I I know that you mentioned with the department of health um being on top of things and that part of their work was to help network or connect you to res maybe resources but my first question about this is did they do they help you with getting connected with the state or the city county and do do you are you on the list of those who are receiving funding from the feds for the latest recent federal funding has that targeted that faith-based community or not I I'm uh I'm a little bit um blank on what I saw in the bill for faith-based what are you on the yeah I'm not the the funds that I'm aware of that were available through the more recent government grants um required a non-profit to show a 20 or 25 reduction in gross receipts for one or two months of the previous um some previous period of time and we did not have that kind of reduction and therefore we did not qualify for that assistance well I was just going to say you should bring in a smart lawyer to look over your papers but you are a smart lawyer so you have it that that's a really good news that you wrote it there wasn't that much erosion of that I'm glad to hear that and it must be your management of it but um it just is that with people with no congregants there and I guess today we're not necessarily your churches aren't necessarily dependent on the collection of during services for for for maintaining their budget because there's so many other ways to give is that the case I think you know ordinarily you think well if the people aren't there and the basket's not coming around then what what about that I mean it seemed to me like that would be the first place you'd get that 20 reduction is that but we didn't we've most about 25 of our budget comes from pledges and that is typically mailed in or done online a certain percentage is done through the through the basket but you know it's the old story of the hundred dollar bill and the one dollar bill in the retirement home in the one hundred dollar bill was talking about all the great cruises he'd been on in the vagus trips and the plays he'd seen in new york and the and the one dollar bill set keeps came saying all I do is I go to church I go to church I go to church and the hundred dollar bill said well what's a church so the point being is that yeah usually it's dollar bills being put in the plate which we appreciate very much thank you but it's not a significant part of our budget yeah that that just verifies yeah that validates that but things are differently of course you know you've done from from that yeah I want my other question on in that way is what what is the church leaders what's been the hierarchy's leadership on this here in Hawaii I guess is that the bishop and then also the abyssical churches is very tiered and hierarchical and so you have the archbishop and people that are have have you had any leadership from them for solving these problems so we have yeah we have a presiding bishop nationally Michael Curry and the national church has of course been very helpful in putting information out to the whole to the whole church across the country our bishop Bob Fitzpatrick is very committed to following the science and doing his very best to try to keep us in line with that and make recommendations and so forth so we you know we don't have we usually give communion in both kinds the bread and the wine we have not provided the wine during COVID we are we for the longest time we even stopped Holy Communion just because of the concern about person to person the touching transmission but as that clarified itself we have returned to the bread only so yeah so that's it yeah and the bishop's been very good and very helpful and this is a disease that's constantly changing and and it's throwing some new punches now and we're just trying to roll with those punches as best as we can and and do our best to keep folks safe and at the same time stay connected as best we can well have you had any financial support from from the bishop or of the funds he's associated with whether was there any additional funding provided not specifically due to COVID but we had a couple of requests that we made to the diocese that were granted for five or ten thousand dollars yeah so there was some go to for that oh i i'm glad to hear i'm that it's not the disaster that i had imagined we might be talking about but it is a disaster nevertheless i mean it can always be worse well um tell me a little bit more about what have been if we can put it this way what what are the lessons learned uh in this in this crisis situation father david what what are you getting from this on the positive side i mean oh you know i there's been a lot of positives i think from COVID i think it's restructured the way almost all of us deal with work you know the the nine to five in the office is perhaps a thing of the past um it's given a lot of folks some time just to be instead of running hither and yon the separation from each other has had its difficulties but it also has had the blessing of just giving some time to be quiet i think um so we you know we'll see and now we're talking about returning to normal and and part of us we're seeing a rebellion among our wider community over the number of tourists coming and we haven't even opened up to the international market yet which was the dominant part of our tourist business before COVID and we're already feeling overrun by mainland tourists how do we do this and and how do we move forward and at least people are having that conversation um in a very serious way i think because where we were heading i don't believe was sustainable for a whole number of reasons and it really is time for us to re-examine how we do capitalism how we do our economy that growth isn't something that can be endlessly sustained without destroying the planet i think indigenous people are finding their voice at long last and helping us to learn about how do we survive on this planet indigenous people have managed for 200 000 years to keep humanity alive and western man in the last 160 years has brought us to the brink of destruction so something is very wrong and i think in that sense a pandemic like this COVID has grabbed us all by the scruff of the neck and said time to reevaluate and the question of course is will we yeah that's the question isn't it well there been a particularly heroic effort or a story is there a story of a heroic effort that made a really big difference over this year um or or is it the gifts are you know at this these levels of really the transformation of uh of the way we think about ourselves and our world and how we do i think just the fact that so many people are willing to step up and provide services to those in our community who are really desperate is a act of heroism particularly because this is a disease that you know if you want to be super safe you just stay in your room so to venture out and to meet strangers and to interact with them under these conditions i think is real heroism not to mention the folks who are checking me out at the safeway uh or at food land and just the regular working people the bus drivers um the cab drivers who are keeping this economy going keeping all of us going they are really the heroes those are the heroes well you know uh we are getting to a little hot time here uh and in our talk together and uh we'll have to wrap it up um but this is the state of the state of hawaii on uh think tech hawaii broadcasting and i'm your host stephanie stall dalton and we've been talking with uh father david uh gearlack who's rector at st elizabeth eliz episcopal church in palama and i thank him very much thank you father david for participating on our show today and and illuminating your what what it's like to be in the midst of this whirlwind whirlwind tsunami uh what a hurricane of a pandemic and it sounds like there have been many good things that have happened in addition to the challenges that you've had so we'll be back in two weeks aloha and uh mahalo for your attention