Church Leaders Request Further Meeting With Prime Minister Over Vaccine Requirement

The controversy over the reopening of churches continues as church leaders in Belize have called for another meeting with Prime Minister John Briceño to further discuss how Statutory Instrument 119 will be applied as it pertains to reopening even to the unvaccinated. Anglican Bishop, Philip Wright explained there will have to be more analysis of the status among church members.

Philip Wright, Bishop, Anglican Church

“If you cannot monitor this thing right you end up with the risk that you will have vaccinated along with the unvaccinated in Church and you’re right, the elderly will be the most vulnerable, of course, and others, and that was also a situation we were not prepared to embrace. So the church leaders a week ago said we have to look at some new alternatives, and we were not prepared to open churches unless we could have worked through some alternatives. That’s where we ended the conversation with the Prime Minister. I don’t believe we were in favor of maybe what this new SI will do, which is just open up the churches and not necessarily making a distinction between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. We didn’t want to go there either. So what we have done is we have requested a further conversation with the PM and the Minister of Health and Wellness for us to look at some alternatives to just what this current SI may be proposing and some of those things would be to do a proper investigation perhaps congregation by congregation to ascertain their own preparedness and if they meet the standards meaning for instance, let’s say the vaccination requirement was maintained, do some assessment of a congregation to see. Have they prepared a proper list of their vaccinated and unvaccinated members for one? Secondly, what other measures are they taking to ensure that even when the vaccinated assemble other protocols are being followed.”