When kingdom hall meetings and Bible studies were moved to Zoom, the congregation worried about Ryan slipping into isolation.Īfter research and conversations with others in the community, “it dawned on me to use email,” Smith said. Smith would sit next to Ryan and tactile sign the talks. Prior to the pandemic, Smith and Ryan attended an American Sign Language congregation in the area. “Our first thought was ‘what about James? What are we going to do for him,’” said John Smith, a Jehovah’s Witness in Ryan’s congregation. When the pandemic hit last March and public meetings were suspended, his congregation mobilized. James Ryan, a Jehovah’s Witness in Fall River, Massachusetts, was born deaf and became blind as a result of retinal detachment at age eight. But what about those who are unable to participate in widely adopted methods of virtual worship?Ī 2008 census by The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness estimated the population of deaf-blind individuals in the United States to be around 50,000 people. All door-to-door knocking, Subway ministry, and public outreach has moved online since last March.Īs of August 2020, nine out of 10 Americans who attended online religious services said they were either “very” satisfied (54 percent) or “somewhat” satisfied (37 percent) with the experience. Weekly kingdom hall meetings are being conducted over Zoom, and the annual convention, a staple in the Witnesses’ calendar, began virtually last weekend for the second time in history and will continue to roll out through August. It can’t hurt us to be as cautious coming out of this as we were going in.” “But then the Fall was an unmitigated disaster and by January some thought ‘we will never get past this’. “Even when the pandemic was raging, there was a significant drop in the Summer, to where some thought ‘this is behind us,’” Hendriks said. Despite this trend, the organization remains nervous about reopening, especially amid emerging variants of the virus. We want to eliminate it entirely,” he said.Īs of July 2, 67.1 percent of U.S adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. “It is not enough for us to mitigate risk. However, the Jehovah’s Witnesses still have no plans to reopen, said Robert Hendriks, spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses American branch. Only 18 percent of Protestants surveyed and 8 percent of Catholics surveyed said their congregations were not open for in-person services. As of March 2021, a similar Pew study found that fewer than one in five people who regularly attend religious services said their congregation was closed for in-person services. Last Spring, according to data from the Pew Research Center, more than 90 percent of Americans who regularly attended religious services indicated that their congregations were closed.
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