Area churches are stepping up to show their support for healthcare workers during the pandemic.
What started as a parishioner's idea has now turned into a community-wide ritual. Every evening at 7 p.m., St. Marys churches show their support for healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic by ringing church bells. Churches that do not have bells wrote a message on signs to show support. According to the Ohio Department of Health, as of today, 628 of the confirmed coronavirus cases include healthcare workers. Churches wanted to honor those people that risk contracting the virus every day to keep others healthy for all of the hard work.
Rev. Bev Hurlburt, a Pastor at Walnut Grove United Methodist Church and Grace United Methodist Church in St. Marys said, “It was placed on someone’s heart, and the congregation at Walnut Grove [United Methodist Church]. She wanted the healthcare workers and actually for all the people out there on the front lines who don’t have a choice to stay home, she wanted them to know that the church people were thinking about them and praying for them and that they're not alone. She said specifically, ‘When they hear the bells, I want them to have hope.’”
St. Marys churches will continue ringing church bells every day at 7 p.m. from now until Easter.
